
Qass 



BoQk^,'A \ 



HENRY WARD BEECHER'S WRITINGS 



FREEDOM AND WAR. 

1 vol. 12mo. $1.50. 

'EYES AND EARS: 

1 vol. 12mo. $1.50. 

LECTURES TO YOUNG MEN, 

NEW AND REVISED EDITION. 
1 vol. 16mo. $1.00. 



TICKNOR AND FIELDS, Publishers. 



FEEEDOM AND WAE. 



DISCOURSES 



ON TOPICS SUGGESTED BY THE TIMES. 



HENRY WARD BEECHER. 




BOSTON: 

TICK NOR AND FIELDS 



1863. 






Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by 

TICKNOR AND FIELDS, 

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



University Press: 

Welch, Bigelow, and Company, 

Cambridge. 



EDITOE'S INTRODUCTION. 




R. BEECHER'S occupations have been so 
pressing as to prevent him from any ade- 
quate care either in selecting or revising 
these Discourses. In fact, it was no suggestion of his 
that they should be reprinted. The undersigned is 
responsible for the selection of all of them, and for 
the revision of all after the eighth. The first eight 
were hastily revised by Mr. Beecher. 

The title sufficiently expresses the rule by which 
the selection was made. That rule was, to choose 
discourses on subjects of present interest, and which, 
at the same time, should as far as possible so handle 
those subjects as to have a more permanent value. 
They have also a certain significance from their order 
in time. 

No other system will be found in the book, except 
a systematic purpose always to discuss the subject 
apparently most important at the time. Its general 
method is, to apply tlie principles of Christianity to 
the duties and circumstances of life ; to insist on a 



IV INTRODUCTION. 

sound and lofty and fearless Christian morality in 
whatever men do ; and to show the increased im- 
portance of practising that morality in times like 
these. It is believed that, in seeking to do this, 
these Discourses are consistent and clear in teacliing 
God's almighty supremacy and his goodness and wis- 
dom, faith in humanity and its future, the absolute 
necessity of National Righteousness and of Christian 
Equality, the substantial truth and excellence of the 
frame of government of the United . States, the sub- 
stantial nobility and courage, justice and persever- 
ance, of the real democracy of the country, and the 
certain and ineffable splendor of our future, if only 
we are true to ourselves, to humanity, and to God. 

F. B. p. 



CONTENTS 



I)l3C0nRSE Pagb 

I. The Nation's Duty to Slavery .... 1 

II. Against a Compromise of Principle . . 28 

III. Our Blameworthiness 57 

IV. The Battle set in Array .... 84 
V, The National Flag Ill 

VI. The Camp, its Dangers and Duties . . 130 

VII. Energy of Administration demanded . .153 

VIII. Modes and Duties of Emancipation . . 174 

IX. The Church's Duty to Slavery . . . 200 

X. The Beginning of Freedom .... 223 

XI. The Success of American Democracy . . 248 

XII. Christianity in Government .... 270 

XIII. Speaking Evil of Dignities .... 294 

XIV. National Injustice and Penalty . . . 311 
XV. The Ground and Forms of Government . .341 

XVI. Our Good Progress and Prospects . . 368 

XVII. Liberty under Laws ...... 396 

XVIII. The Southern Babylon 420 



I- 



THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY* 



" Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old 
paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for 
your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein. Also I set watch- 
men over you, saying. Hearken to the sound of the trumpet. But they 
said, We will not hearken. Therefore hear, ye nations, and know, con- 
gregation, what is among them. Hear, earth : behold, I will bring evil 
upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not 
hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it." — Jer. vi. 
16-19. 




HIS is a terrible message. It was God's 
word of old by the moutli of his prophet, 
Jeremiah. The occasion of it was a sudden 
irruption upon Judah of victorious enemies. 
God sent the prophet to reveal the cause of this disas- 
ter. The prophet declared that God was punishing 
his people because they were selfish and unjust and 

* Preached October 30, 1859, while John BroAvn was in prison awaiting 
trial for his doings at Harper's Ferry. John Brown's raid took place while 
the country was just organizing for the campaign which resulted in the 
election of Mr. Lincoln. It was at once attempted to turn the occurrence 
against the cause of liberty, by representing it as a symptom and prema- 
ture development of what was intended by the Republican party against 
the rights of the South. It was necessary that the friends of liberty 
should be vindicated, without at the same time taking part, or seeming 
to take part, against those in bonds. 

I A 



2 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

covetous, and because the whole Church, witli its min- 
istry, was whehned in the same sins. These mischiefs 
had been glossed over and excused and palliated and 
hidden, and not healed. There had been a spirit that 
demanded union and qu^iet rather than purity and 
safety. God, therefore, threatens further afflictions, 
because of the hardness of their hearts ; and then, — 
for such always is the Divine lenity, — as it were, 
giving them another opportunity and alternative, he 
commands them to seek after God ; to look for a 
BETTER way; to scarch for the old way, the right 
way, and to walk in it. 

I need not stop to point out the remarkable perti- 
nence which these things have, in many respects, to 
our nation in the past and to our times in the present. 
After a long silence upon this subject, I avail myself 
of the state of the public mind to make some observa- 
tions on the present state of our land. 

The surprise of a whole nation at a recent event is 
itself the best evidence of the isolation of that event. 
A burning fragment struck the earth near Harper's 
Ferry. If the fragment of an exploding aerolite had 
fallen down out of the air, while the meteor swept on, 
it would not have been more sudden or less apparently 
connected either with a cause or an effect ! 

Seventeen men, white men, without a military base, 
without supplies, witliout artillery, without organiza- 
tion more than as a squad of militia, attacked a State, 
and undertook to release and lead away an enslaved 
race I They do not appear to have been called by the 
sufferers, nor to have been welcomed by them. They 
volunteered a grace, and sought to enforce its accept- 
ance. Seventeen white men held two thousand in 



THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY/ 3 

duress. They barricaded themselves, and waited until 
the troops of two States, the employes of a great rail- 
way, and a portion of the forces of tlie Federal gov- 
ernment could, travelling briskly night and day, reach 
them. Then, at one dash, they were snuffed out ! 

I do not wonder that Virginians feel a great deal of 
mortification ! Everybody is sympathetically ashamed 
for them ! It is quite natural that every effort should 
be made to enlarge the proportions of this escapade, 
that they may hide their weakness and incompetency 
behind a smartly upblown horror! No one doubts 
the bravery of Virginians ! It needs no praising. But 
even brave men have panics. Courage is sometimes 
caught at unawares. Certainly it strikes us, at a dis- 
tance, as a remarkable thing, that prisoners three to 
one more than their captors, and two thousand citi- 
zens, should have remained days and nights under the 
fear and control of seventeen white men. Northern 
courage has been at a discount in the South hitherto. 
It ought hereafter to rise in value, at least in Virginia ! 

The diligence which is now shown on the part of 
many public presses to inflame the public mind and 
infect it with fear is quite foolish. The inoculation 
will not take. The North may not be courageous, but 
it certainly is not silly. There is an element of the 
ludicrous in this transaction which I think will effect- 
ually stop all panic. 

Seventeen men terrified two thousand brave Vir- 
ginians into two days' submission, — that cannot be 
got over ! The common sense of common people will 
not fail to see through all attempts to hide a natural 
shame by a bungling make-believe that the danger was 
really greater than it was ! The danger was nothing, 



4 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

and the fear very great, and the courage none at all. 
And nothing can now change the facts ! All the news- 
papers on earth will not make this case appear any 
better. Do what you please, — muster a crowd of 
supposed confederates, call the roll of conspirators, 
include the noblest men of these States, and exhibit 
this imaginary army before the people, and, in the end, 
it will appear that seventeen white men overawed a 
town of two thousand brave Virginians, and held them 
captives until the sun had gone laughing twice around 
the globe ! 

And the attempt to hide the fear of these sur- 
rounded men by awaking a larger fear will never do. 
It is too literal a fulfilment, not exactly of prophecy, 
but of fable ; not of Isaiah, but of ^sop. 

A fox having been caught in a trap, escaped with 
the loss of his tail. He immediately went to his 
brother foxes to persuade them that they would all 
look better if they too would cut off their tails. 
They declined. And our two thousand friends, who 
lost their courage in the presence of seventeen men, 
are now making an appeal to this nation to lose its 
courage too, that the cowardice of the few may be 
hidden in the cowardice of the whole community ! 
It is impossible. We choose to wear our courage for 
some time longer! 

As I shall not recur to this epic in Virginia history 
again to-night, I must say a word in respect to the 
head and heart of it. For it all stood in the courage 
of one man. 

An old man, kind at heart, industrious, peaceful, 
went forth, witli a large family of children, to seek a 
new home in Kansas. That infant colony held thou- 



THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 5 

sands of souls as noble as liberty ever inspired or 
religion enriched. A great scowling Slave State, its 
nearest neighbor, sought to tread down this liberty- 
loving colony, and to dragoon slavery into it by 
force of arms. The armed citizens of a hostile State 
crossed the State lines, destroyed the freedom of the 
ballot-box, prevented a fair expression of public senti- 
ment, corruptly usurped law-making power, and or- 
dained by fraud laws as infamous as the sun ever saw ; 
assaulted its infant settlements with armed hordes, 
ravaged the fields, destroyed harvests and herds, and 
carried death to a multitude of cabins. The United 
States government had no marines for this occasion ! 
No Federal troops posted by the cars by night and day 
for the poor, the weak, the grossly wronged men of 
Kansas. There was an army there that unfurled the 
banner of the Union, but it was on the side of the 
wrong-doers, not on the side of the injured. 

It was in this field that Brown received his impulse. 
A tender father, whose life "was in his son's life, he 
saw his first-born seized like a felon, chained, driven 
across the country, crazed by suffering and heat, beaten 
like a dog by the officer in charge, and long lying at 
death's door ! Another noble boy, without warning, 
without offence, unarmed, in open day, in the midst 
of the city, was shot dead ! No justice sought out the 
murderers ; no United States attorney was despatched 
in hot haste ; no marines or soldiers aided the wronged 
and weak ! 

The shot that struck the child's heart crazed the 
father's brain. Revolving his wrongs, and nursing 
his hatred of that deadly system that breeds such 
contempt of justice and humanity, at length his 



6 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

phantoms assume a slender reality, and organize such 
an enterprise as one might expect from a man whom 
grief had bereft of good judgment. He goes to the 
heart of a Slave State. One man, — and with sixteen 
followers ! he seizes two thousand brave Virginians, 
and holds them in duress ! 

When a great State attacked a handful of weak col- 
onists, the government and nation were torpid, but 
when seventeen men attacked a sovereign State, then 
Maryland arms, and Virginia arms, and the United 
States government arms, and they three rush against 
seventeen men. 

Travellers tell us that the Geysers of Iceland — 
those singular boiling springs of the North — may be 
transported with fury by plucking up a handful of 
grass or turf and throwing it into the springs. The 
hot springs of Virginia are of the same kind! A 
handful of men was thrown into them, and what a 
boiling there has been ! 

But, meanwhile, no one can fail to see that this 
poor, child-bereft old man is tlie manliest of them all. 
Bold, unflinching, honest, without deceit or evasion, 
refusing to take technical advantages of any sort, but 
openly avowing his principles and motives, glorying 
in them in danger and death, as much as when in 
security, — that wounded old father is the most re- 
markable figure in this whole drama. The Governor, 
the officers of the State, and all the attorneys are 
pygmies compared with him. 

I deplore his misfortunes. I sympathize with his 
sorrows. I mourn the hiding or obscuration of his 
reason. I disapprove of his mad and feeble schemes. 
I shrink from the folly of the bloody foray, and I 



THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 7 

shrink likewise from all the anticipations of that judi- 
cial bloodshed which doubtless erelong will follow, — 
for when was cowardice ever magnanimous ? If they 
kill the man, it will not be so much for treason as for 
the disclosure of their cowardice ! 

Let no man pray that Brown be spared. Let Yir- 
ginia make him a martyr. Now, he has only blun- 
dered. His soul was noble ; his work miserable. But 
a cord and a gibbet would redeem all that, and round 
up Brown's failure with a heroic success. 

One word more, and that is as to the insecurity of 
those States that carry powder as their chief cargo. 
Do you suppose that if tidings had come to New York 
that the United States armory in Springfield had been 
seized by seventeen men. New Haven, and Hartford, 
and Stamford, and Worcester, and New York, and 
Boston, and Albany would have been thrown into a 
fever and panic in consequence of the event ? "We 
scarcely should have read the papers to see what be- 
came of it. We should have thought that it was a 
matter which the Springfield people could manage. 
The thought of danger would not have entered into 
our heads. There would not have been any danger. 
But in a State where there is such inflammable stufi" as 
slavery, there is danger, and the people of the South 
know it ; and they cannot help it. I do not blame 
them so much for being afraid : there is cause for 
fear where they have such a population as they have 
down at the bottom of society. But what must be the 
natvire of State and domestic institutions which keep 
brave men at the point of fear all their life long ? 

I do not propose, at this time, to express my opin- 
ion upon the general subject of slavery. I have else- 



8 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

where, and often, deliberately uttered my testimony. 
Reflection and experience only confirm my judgment 
of its immeasurable evils. It is double-edged evil, 
that cuts both ways, wounding master and slave ; 
a pest to good morals ; a consumption of the indus- 
trial virtues ; a burden upon society in its commercial 
and economic arrangements ; a political anomaly ; 
and a cause of inevitable degradation in religious 
ideas, feelings, and institutions. All other causes of 
trouble derived from the weakness or the wickedness 
of men put together are not half so mischievous to 
our land as is this gigantic evil. 

But it exists in our land, and with a wide-spread 
and a long-established hold. The extent of our duties 
toward the slave and toward the master is another 
and separate question. Our views upon the nature 
of slavery may be right, and our views of duty to- 
ward it may be wrong. At this time it is peculiarly 
necessary that all good men should be divinely led to 
act with prudence and efficient wisdom. 

Because it is a great sin, because it is a national 
curse, it does not follow that we have a right to say 
anything or do anything about it that may happen to 
please us. We certainly have no right to attack it in 
any manner that may gratify men's fancies or pas- 
sions. It is computed that there are four million 
colored slaves in our nation. These dwell in fifteen 
different Southern States, with a population of ten 
million whites. These sovereign States are united to 
us not merely by federal ligaments, but by vital inter- 
ests, by a common national life. And the question 
of duty is not simply what is duty toward the blacks, 
not what is duty toward the whites, but what is 



THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 9 

duty to each and to both united. I am bound by 
the great law of loye to consider my duties toward 
the slave, and I am bound by the great law of love 
also to consider my duties toward the white man, 
who is his master ! Both are to be treated with 
Christian wisdom and forbearance. We must seek to 
benefit the slave as much as the white man, and the 
white man as really as the slave. We must keep in 
mind the interest of every part, — of the slaves them- 
selves, of the white population, and of the whole 
brotherhood of States federated into national life. 
And while the principles of liberty and justice are 
one and the same, always and everywhere, the wisest 
method of conferring upon men the benefit of liberty 
and justice demands great consideration, according 
to circumstances. 

How to apply an acknowledged principle in practi- 
cal life is a task more difficult than the defence of the 
principle. It is harder to define what would be just 
in certain emergencies than to establish the duty, 
claims, and authority of justice. 

Can any light be thrown upon this difficult path ? 
Some light may be shed ; but the difficulties of duty 
can never be removed except by the performance of 
duty. But some things may be known beforehand, 
and guide to practical solutions. 

I shall proceed to show the wrong way and the 
right way. 

1. First, we have no right to treat the citizens of 
the South with acrimony and bitterness, because they 
are involved in a system of wrong-doing. Wrong is 
to be exposed. But the spirit of rebuke may be as 
wicked before God as the spirit of the evil rebuked. 
1* 



10 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

Simplicity and firmness in truth are more powerful 
than any vehement bitterness. Speaking the truth in 
love is the Apostle's prescription. Some men so love 
that they will not speak painful truth, and some men 
utter truth so bitterly as to destroy love ; and both 
are evil-doers. A malignant speech about slavery will 
not do any good ; and, most of all, it will not do 
those any good who most excite our sympathy, — the 
children of bondage. If we hope to ameliorate the 
condition of the slave, the first step must not be taken 
by setting the master against him. We may be sure 
that God will not employ mere wrath for wisdom ; 
and that he will raise up and send forth, when his 
day comes, fearless men, who shall speak the truth 
for justice, in the spirit of love. Therefore it is a 
matter not merely of political and secular wisdom, 
but of Christian conscience, that those that have at 
heart the welfare of the enslaved should maintain a 
Christian spirit. This can be done without giving up 
one word of truth or one principle of righteousness. 
A man may be fearless and plain-spoken, and yet give 
evidence of being sympathetic and kind-hearted and 
loving. 

2. The breeding of discontent ^mong the bondmen 
of our land is not the way to help them. Whatever 
gloomy thoughts the slave's own mind may brood, we 
are not to carry disquiet to him from without. 

If I could have my way, every man on the globe 
should be a freeman, and at once ! But as they can- 
not be, will not be, for ages, is it best that bitter dis- 
content should be inspired in them, or Christian quiet- 
ness and patient waiting ? If restlessness would bring 
freedom, they should never rest. But I firmly believe 



THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 11 

that moral goodness in the slave is the harbinger of 
liberty ! The influence of national freedom will grad- 
iially reach the enslaved, it will surely inspire that 
restlessness which precedes development. Germina- 
tion is the most silent, but most disturbing, of all 
natural processes. Slaves cannot but feel the uni- 
versal summer of civilization. In this way they must 
come to restless yearnings. We cannot help that, 
and would not if we' could. It is God's sign that 
spring has come to them. The soul is coming up. 
There must be room for it to grow. But this is a 
very different thing from surly discontent, stirred up 
from without, and left to rankle in their unenlight- 
ened natures. The time is rapidly coming when the 
Southern Christian will feel a new inspiration. We 
are not far removed from a revival of the doctrines 
of Christian manhood and the divine rights of men. 
When this pentecost comes, the slaves will be stirred 
by their own masters. We must work upon the 
master. Make him discontented with slavery, and he 
will speedily take care of the rest. Before this time 
comes, any attempt to excite discontent among the 
slaves will work mischief to them, and not good. And 
my experience — and I have had some experience in 
this matter — is, that men who tamper with slaves 
and incite them to discomtent are not themselves to be 
trusted. They are not honest men, unless they are 
fanatical. If they have their reason, they usually 
have lost their conscience. I do not know why it is 
so, but my experience has taught me that men who 
do such things are crafty, and untrustworthy. Con- 
spirators, the world over, are bad men. And if I 
were in the South, I should, not from fear of the mas- 



12 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

ter, but from the most deliberate sense of the injuri- 
ous effects of it to the slave, never by word nor act do 
anything to excite discontent amoiig those who are in 
slavery. The condition of the slave must be changed, 
but the change cannot go on in one part of the com- 
munity alone. There must be change in the law, 
change in the Church, change in the upper classes, 
change in the middle and in all classes. Emancipa- 
tion, when it comes, will come either by revolution or 
by a change of public opinion in the whole commu- 
nity. No influences, then, are adequate to the relief 
of the slave, which are not of a proportion and power 
sufficient to modify the thought and the feehng of tlie 
whole community. The evil is not partial. It cannot 
be cured by partial remedies. Our plans must in- 
clude a universal change in policy, feeling, purpose, 
theory, and practice in the whole nation. The appli- 
cation of simple remedies to single spots in this great 
body of disease will serve to produce a useless irrita- 
tion : it will merely fester the hand, but not cure the 
whole body. 

3. No relief will be afforded to the slaves of the 
South, as a body, by any individual ; or by any organ- 
ized plan to carry them off, or to incite them to ab- 
scond. 

The more enlightened and liberty-loving among 
the Southern slaves bear too much of their masters' 
blood not to avail themselves of any opening to es- 
cape. It is their right; it will be their practice. 
Free locomotion is an incident of slave property, 
which the master must put up with. Nimble legs 
are of much use in tempering the severity of slavery. 
If, therefore, an enslaved man, acting from the yearn- 



THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 13 

iugs of his own heart, desires to run away, who shall 
forbid him ? In all tlie earth, wlierever a human 
being is held in bondage, lie has a right to slougli his 
burden and break his yoke if he can. If he wishes 
liberty, and is willing to dare and suffer for it, let 
him ! If by his manly courage he achieves it, ho 
ought to have it. I honor such a man ! 

Nay, if he has escaped and comes to me, I owe 
him shelter, succor, defence, and God-speed to a final 
safety. If there were as many laws as there are 
lines in the Fugitive Slave Law, and as many officers 
as there were beasts in Daniel's lions'-den, I would 
disregard every law but God's, and help the fugitive ! 
A man whose own heart has inspired a courage suffi- 
cient to achieve what he desired, shall never come to 
my door, and not be made as welcome as my own 
child. I will adopt him for God's sake, and for the 
sake of the Christ who broods over the weak and 
perishing. Nor am I singular in such feelings and 
purposes. Ten thousand men, even in the South, 
would feel and do the same. A man who would not 
help a fellow-creature flying for his liberty must be 
either a villain or a politician. 

I stand on the outside of this great cordon of dark- 
ness, and every man that escapes from it, running for 
his life, shall have some help from me, if he comes 
forth of his own free accord; yet I would never 
incite slaves to run away, or send any other man to 
do it. We have no right to carry into the midst 
of slavery exterior discontent ; and for this reason : 
that it is not good for the slaves themselves. It is 
short-sighted humanity, at best, and poor policy for 
both the blacks and the whites. And I say again, 



14 FEEEDOM AND WAR. 

I would not trust a man that should do it. It would 
injure the blacks chiefly and especially. How it 
would injure them will appear when I come to speak 
positively of wliat is the right way to promote the 
liberty of the enslaved. I may say here, however, 
that the higher a man is raised in the scale of being, 
tlie harder it will be to hold him in bondage and to 
sell him; while the more he is like an animal, the 
easier it will be to hold him in thrall and harness. 
The more you make slaveholders feel that when they 
oppress and sell a man they are oppressing and sell- 
ing God's image, the harder it will be for them to 
continue to enslave and traffic in human beings. 
Therefore, whatever you do to inspire in the slave 
high and noble and godlike feelings tends to loosen 
his chains, and whatever shall inspire in him base, 
low, and cruel feelings tightens them. 

Eunning away is all fair for single cases. It is 
God's remedy for all cases of special hardship. It 
is the natural right of any slave who has manhood 
enough to resent even tolerant bondage. We are 
not speaking of the remedy for individuals, — but the 
remedy for the whole system. Four milHon men can- 
not run away, until God sends ten Egyptian plagues 
to help them. And those who go among the slaves 
to stir up discontent will help the hundreds at the 
expense of the millions. Those left behind will be 
demoralized, and, becoming less trustworthy, will 
grow sullen under increased severity and vigilance. 

4. Still less would we tolerate anything like insur- 
rection and servile war. It would be the most cruel, 
hopeless, and desperate of all conceivable follies, to 
seek emancipation by the sword and by blood. And 



THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 15 

tliougli I love liberty as my own life, though I long 
for it in every human being, though if God, by un- 
equivocal providences, should ordain that it should 
come again as of old, through terrible plagues on the 
first-born, and by other terrors of ill, I should submit 
to the Divine behest ; yet, so far as human instrumen- 
tality is concerned, by all the conscience of a man, 
by all the faith of a Christian, and by all the zeal 
and warmth of a philanthropist, I protest against any 
counsels that lead to insurrection, servile war, and 
bloodshed. It is bad for the master, bad for the 
slave, bad for all that are neighbors to them, bad 
for the whole land, — bad from beginning to end ! 

The right of a race or nation to seize their free- 
dom is not to be disputed. It belongs to all men 
on the face of the globe, without regard to com- 
plexion. A people have the right to change their 
rulers, their government, their whole political con- 
dition. This right is neither granted nor limited 
in the New Testament. It is left, as are the func- 
tions of life, and even existence itself, as a thing not 
requiring commands or legislation. But, according 
to God's Word, so long as a man remains a servant, 
he must obey his master. The right of the slave to 
throw off the control of his master is not abrogated. 
The right of the subject to do tliis is neither defined 
nor limite(i. But the use of this right must conform 
to reason, and not to mere impulse. The leaders of a 
people have no right to whelm their helpless followers 
in terrible disaster by inciting them to rebel, under 
circumstances that afford not the slightest hope that 
their rebellion will rise to the dignity of a successful 
revolution. The nations of Italy are showing great 



16 FKEEDOM AND WAR. 

wisdom and fitness in their leaders for their work, in 
that they are quelling fretful and irregular outbreak, 
and holding the people steadfast till success shall 
surely crown uprising revolution. This has been the 
eminent wisdom of that Hungarian exile, Kossuth. 
In spite of all that is written and said against this 
noble man, I stand to my first full faith in him. The 
uncrowned hero is the noblest man, after all, in Eu- 
rope ! And his statesmanship has been shown in this : 
that his burning sense of the' right of his people to 
be free has not led him to incite them to premature, 
partial, and easily overmatched revolt. A man may 
give his own life rather than abide in servitude, but 
he has no right to lead a whole people to slaughter, 
without the strongest probabilities of success. 

If nations were all armed men, it would be differ- 
ent. Soldiers can die. But a nation is made up of 
other materials than armed men ; it includes wo- 
men and children and youth. These are to be con- 
sidered, and not merely men of muscle and knuckle 
and bone. 

Now, if the Africans in our land were intelligent, 
if they understood themselves, if they had self-gov- 
erning power, if they were able first to throw off the 
yoke of adverse laws and institutions, and afterwards 
to defend and build themselves up in a civil state, 
then they would have just the same right to assume 
their independence that any nation has. 

But does any man beheve that this is the case ? 
Does any man believe that tliis vast horde of undisci- 
plined Africans, if set free, would have cohesive power 
enough to organize themselves into a government, and 
maintain their independence ? If there be men who 



THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 17 

believe this, I am not among them. I certainly think 
that even slaves would be made immeasurably better 
by liberty ; but I do not believe they would be made 
better by liberty gained by insurrection or rebellion in 
the peculiar circumstances which surround them at 
the South. A regulated liberty ; a liberty possessed 
with the consent of their masters; a liberty under 
the laws and institutions of the country ; a liberty 
which should make them common beneficiaries of 
those institutions and principles which make us wise 
and happy, — such a liberty would be a great blessing 
to them. Freedom, with law and government, is an 
unspeakable good, but without them it is a mischief. . 
And anything that tends to incite among men a vague 
insurrectionary spirit is a great and cruel wrong to 
them. 

If, in view of the wrongs of slavery, you say that 
you do not care for the master, but only for the slave, 
I reply, that you should care for both master and 
slave ! Though you do not care for the fate of the 
wrong-doing white man, I do ! But even though your 
sympathy were only for the slave, then for his sake 
you ought to set your face against anything hke an 
insurrectionary spirit. 

Let us turn from these specifications of the wrong 
way to some considerations relating to the right way. 

1. If we would benefit the African at the South, we 
must begin at the North. This is to some men the 
most disagreeable part of the doctrine of emancipa- 
tion. It is very easy to labor for the emancipation of 
beings a thousand miles off; but the practical appli- 
cation of justice and humanity to those about us is 
not so agreeable. The truths of God respecting the 



18 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

rights and dignities of men are just as important 
to free colored men as to enslaved colored men. The 
lever with which to lift the load of Georgia is in New 
York. I do not believe the whole free North can 
tolerate grinding injustice toward the poor, and in- 
humanity toward the laboring classes, without exert- 
ing an influence unfavorable to justice and humanity 
in the South. No one can fail to see the inconsisten- 
cy between our treatment of those amongst us who 
are in the lower walks of life and our professions of 
sympathy for the Southern slaves. How are the free 
colored people treated at the North ? They are al- 
most without education, and with but little sympathy 
for their ignorance. They are refused the common 
rights of citizenship which the whites enjoy. They 
cannot even ride in the cars of our city railroads. 
They are snuffed at in the house of God, or tolerated 
with ill-concealed disgust. Can the black man be a 
mason in New York ? Let him be employed as a 
journeyman, and every Irish lover of liberty that car- 
ries the hod or trowel would leave at once, or compel 
him to leave ! Can the black man be a carpenter ? 
There is scarcely a carpenter's shop in New York in 
which a journeyman would continue to work, if a 
black man was employed in it. Can the black man 
engage in the common industries of life ? There is 
scarcely one from which he is not excluded. He is 
crowded down, down, down, through the most menial 
calKngs, to the bottom of society. We tax them, and 
then refuse to allow their children to go to our public 
schools. We heap upon them moral obloquy more 
atrocious than that which the master heaps upon the 
slave. And, notwithstanding all this, we lift ourselves 



THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 19 

up to talk to the Southern people about the rights and 
liberties of the human soul, and especially the African 
soul ! It is true that slavery is cruel. But it is not 
at all certain that there is not more love to the race 
in the South than in the North. We do not own 
them, so we do not love them at all. The prejudice 
of the whites against color is so strong that they can- 
not endure to ride or sit with a black man, so long as 
they do not own him. As neighbors, they are not to 
be tolerated, but as property they are most 'tolerable 
in the house, the church, the carriage, the couch ! 
The African owned, may dwell in America ; but un- 
owned, he must be expatriated. Emancipation must 
be jackal to colonization. The choice given to the 
African is plantation or colonization. Our Christian 
public sentiment is a pendulum swinging between 
owning or exporting the colored poor in our midst. 

Whenever we are prepared to show toward the 
lowest, the poorest, and the most despised an un- 
affected kindness, such as led Christ, though the 
Lord of Glory, to lay aside his dignities, and to take 
on himself the form of a servant, and suffer an igno- 
minious death, that he might rescue men from igno- 
rance and bondage, — whenever we are prepared to 
do such things as these, we may be sure that the ex- 
ample of the North will not be unfelt at the South. 
Every effort that is made in Brooklyn to establish 
schools and churches for the free colored people, and 
to encourage them to educate themselves and to be- 
come independent, is a step toward emancipation in 
the South. The degradation of free colored men in 
the North will fortify slavery in the South ! 

2. We must quicken all the springs of feeling in 



20 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

tUe Free States in behalf of human liberty, and create 
21.) public sentiment, based upon truths of Christian 
'manhood. For if we act to any good purpose on the 
minds of the South, we must do it through a salutary 
and pure public sentiment in the North. When we 
have corrected our own practice, and set an example 
of the right spirit, then we shall have a position from 
which to exert a beneficial public influence on the 
minds of Southern slaveholders. For this there must 
be full and free discussion. Under our institutions, 
public opinion is the monarch ; and free speech and 
debate form public opinion. 

The air must be vital with the love of liberty. 
Liberty with us must be raised by religion from the 
selfishness of an instinct to the sanctity of a moral 
principle ! We must love it for ourselves and demand 
it for others. Since Christ took man's nature, human 
life has a divine sanctity. We must inspire in the 
public mind a profound sense of the rights of men 
founded upon their relations to God. The glory of 
intelligence, refinement, genius, has nothing to do 
with men's rights. The rice slave, the Hottentot, are 
as much God's children as Humboldt or Chalmers. 
That they are in degradation only makes it more imper- 
ative vipon us to secure to them the birthright which 
in their ignorance they sell for a mess of pottage. 

These things must become familiar again to our 
pulpits. Our children must be taught to glow again 
in our schools over the heroic ideals of liberty. 
Mothers must twine the first threads of their chil- 
dren's life with the golden threads of these divine 
truths, and the whole of life must be woven to the 
heavenly pattern of Liberty ! 



THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 21 

What can tho North do for tlio Soiitli, unless her 
own heart is purified and ennobled ? When the love 
of liberty is at so low an ebb that churches dl^ead 
the sound, ministers shrink from the topic ; when 
book-publishers dare not publish or republish a word 
on the subject of slavery, cut out every living word 
from school-books, expurgate life-passages from Hum- 
boldt, Spurgeon, and all foreign authors or teachers ; 
and when great religious publication societies, en- 
dowed for the very purpose of speaking fearlessly the 
truths which interest would let perish, pervert their 
trust, and are dumb, first and chiefly, and articulate 
only in things that thousands of others could publish 
as well as they, — what chance is there that public 
sentiment, in such a community, will have any power 
with the South ? 

But the end of these things is at hand. A nobler 
spirit is arising. New men, new hearts, new zeals, 
are coming forward, led on by all those signs and 
auspices that God foresends when he prepares his 
people to advance. This work, well begun, must not 
go back. It must grow, like spring, into summer. 
God will then give it an autumn — without a winter. 
And when such a public sentiment fills the Nortli, 
founded upon religion, and filled with fearless love to 
both the bond and the free, it will work all over the 
continent, and nothing can be hid from the shining 
thereof. 

3. By all the ways consistent with the fearless 
assertion of truth, we must maintain sympathy and 
kindness toward the South. We are brethren ; and 
I pray that no fratricidal influences be permitted to 
sunder this Union. There was a time when I thought 



22 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

the body of death would be too much for life, and 
that the North was in danger of taking disease from 
the 'South, rather than they our health. That time 
has gone past. I do not believe that we shall be 
separated by their act or ours. We have an element 
of healing, which, if we are true to ourselves and our 
principles, and Grod is kind to us, will drive itself 
further and further into the nation, until it penetrates 
and regenerates every part. When the whole lump 
shall have been leavened thereby, old prejudices will 
be done away, and new sympathies will be created. 

I am for holding the heart of the North right up to 
the heart of the South. Every heart-beat will be, ere- 
long, not a blow riveting oppression, but a throb carry- 
ing new health. Freedom in the North is stronger 
than slavery in the South. We are yet to work for 
them as the silent spring works for us. They are 
a lawful prey to love. I do not hesitate to tell the 
South what I mean by loving this Union. I mean 
liberty, I mean the decay of slavery, and its ex- 
tinction. If I might speak for the North, I would 
say to the South : " We love you, and hate your 
slavery. We shall leave no fraternal effort untried 
to deliver you, and ourselves with you, from tlie 
degradation, danger, and wickedness of this system." 
And for this we cling to the Union. There is health 
in it. 

4. We are to leave no pains untaken, through tlie 
Christian conscience of the South, to give to the slave 
himself a higher moral status. I lay it down as an 
axiom, that whatever gives more manhood to the slave 
slackens the bonds that bind him, and that whatever 
lowers him in the scale of manhood tightens those 



THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 23 

bonds. If yon wish to work for the enfrancliisement 
of the African, seek to make him a better man. 
Teach him to be an obedient servant, and an honest, 
true. Christian man. These virtues are God's step- 
stones to Uberty. That man whom Christ first makes 
free has a better chance to be civilly free than any 
other. To make a slave morose, fractious, disobedi- 
ent, and unwilling to work is the way to defer his 
emancipation. We do not ask the slave to be satisfied 
with slavery. But, feeling its grievous burden, we 
ask him to endufe. it while he must, " as unto God, 
and not unto man " ; not because he does not love 
liberty, but because he does love Christ enough to 
show forth His spirit under grievous wrong. Bad 
slaves will never breed respect, sympathy, and eman- 
cipation. Truth, honor, fidelity, manhood, — these 
things in the slave will prepare him for freedom. It 
is the low animal condition of the African that en- 
slaves him. It is moral enfranchisement that will 
break his bonds. 

The Pauline treatment is the most direct road to 
liberty. No part of the wisdom of the New Testament 
seems to me more divinely wise than Paul's directions 
to those in slavery. This is the food that servants 
need now at the South, everywhere, the world over ! 
If I lived in the South, I should preach these things 
to slaves, with a firm conviction that so I should ad- 
vance the day of their liberty ! I should feel that I 
was carrying them further and further toward their 
emancipation. There is no disagreement between tlie 
true spirit of emancipation and the enforcement of 
every single one of the precepts of the New Testa- 
ment respecting servants. 



24 FREEDOM AND WAE. 

5. The things which shall lead to emancipation are 
not so complicated or numerous as people blindly 
think. A few virtues established, a few usages main- 
tained, a few rights guaranteed to the slaves, and the 
system is vitally wounded. The right of chastity in 
the woman, the unblemished household love, the right 
of parents in their children, — on these three elements 
stands the whole weight of society. Corrupt or en- 
feeble these, and there cannot be superincumbent 
strength. Withhold these rights from savage people, 
and they can never be carried up. They are the inte- 
gral elements of associated human life. We demand, 
and have a right to demand, of the Christian men of 
the South, that they shall revolutionize the moral 
condition of the slaves. 

I stand up in behalf of two million women who are 
without a voice, to declare that there ought to be 
found in Christianity, somewhere, an influence that 
shall protect their right to their own persons, and 
that their purity shall stand on some other ground 
than the caprice of their masters ! I demand that the 
Christian Church, both North and South, shall bear 
a testimony in behalf of marriage among the slaves, 
which shall make it as inviolable as marriage among 
the whites. It is not to be denied that another code 
of morals prevails upon the plantation than that which 
prevails in the plantation mansion. So long as hus- 
band and wife are marriageable commodities, liable to 
be sold apart, to form new connections, there can be 
no such thing as sanctity in wedlock. 

Let it be known in New York that a man has two 
wives, and there is no church so feeble of conscience 
that they will not instantly eject him ; and the law 



THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 25 

will promptly visit him with penalties. But the com- 
municants of slave churches not only live with a 
second while their first companion is yet alive, but 
in succession with a third and fourtli ; nor is it any 
disqualification for church-membership. The Church 
and the State wink at it. It is the commercial neces- 
sity of the system. If you will sell men, you must 
not be too nice about their moral virtues. 

A wedding among this unhappy people is but a 
name, — a mere form to content their conscience or 
their love of imitating their superiors. Every auc- 
tioneer in the community has the power to put asun- 
der whom God has joined. The bankruptcy of their 
owner is the bankruptcy of the marriage relation in 
half the slaves on his plantation. 

Neither is there any gospel that has been permitted 
to rebuke these things. There is no church that I 
have ever known in the South that bears testimony 
against them. Neither will the churches in the North, 
as a body, take upon themselves the responsibility of 
bearing witness against them. 

I go further. I declare that there must be a Chris- 
tian public sentiment which shall make the family 
inviolate. Men sometimes say, " It is rarely the case 
that families are separated." It is false ! It is false ! 
There is not a slave-mart that does not bear testi- 
mony, a thousand times over, against such an asser- 
tion. Children are bred like colts and calves, and are 
dispersed like them. 

It is in vain to preach a gospel to slaves that leaves 
out personal chastity in man and woman, or that leaves 
their purity subject to another's control ; that leaves 
out the sanctity of the marriage state, and the unity 



26 FEEEDOM AND WAR. 

and inviolability of the family. And yet no gospel 
has borne such a testimony in favor of them as to 
arouse the conscience of the South 1 If ministers 
will not preach liberty to the captive, they ought at 
least to preach the indispensable necessity of house- 
hold virtue ! If they will not call upon the masters 
to set their slaves free, they should at least proclaim 
a Christianity that protects woman, childhood, and 
household ! 

The moment that woman stands self-poised in her 
own purity, the moment man and woman are united 
together by bonds which cannot be sundered during 
their earthly life, the moment the right of parents to 
their children is recognized, — that moment there will 
be a certain sanctity and protection of the eternal and 
Divine government resting upon father and mother 
and children, and the death-blow of slavery will have 
been struck ! You cannot make slavery profitable 
after these three conditions are secured. The mo- 
ment you make slaves serfs, they are no longer a 
legal tender, and are uncurrent in the market ; and 
families are so cumbrous, so difficult to support, so 
expensive, that owners are compelled, from reasons 
of pecuniary interest, to discontinue the system. 

Therefore, if you will only disseminate the truths 
of the Gospel, if you will put timid priests out of the 
way, and lying societies whose cowardice slanders tlie 
Gospel which they pretend to diffuse, and if you will 
bring a whole solar flood of truth to bear upon the 
practical morals of the slave, you will begin to admin- 
ister a remedy, if God designs to cure it by moral 
means, which will inevitably heal the evil. 

6. Among the means to be employed for promoting 



THE NATION'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 27 

the liberty of the slave we must not fail to include 
the power of true Christian prayer. When slavery 
shall cease, it will be by such instruments and in- 
fluences as shall exhibit God's hand and heart in the 
work. Its downfall will have been achieved so large- 
ly through natural causes, so largely through reasons 
as broad as nations, that it will be apparent to all men 
that God led on the emancipation ; man being only 
one element among the many. Therefore, we have 
every encouragement to direct our prayers without 
ceasing to God, that he will restrain the wrath of 
man, inspire men with wisdom, overrule all evil laws, 
and control the commerce of the globe, so that the 
poor may be protected, that the bond may become free, 
that the ignorant may become wise, that the master 
and slave may respect each other, and that at length 
we may be an evangelized and Christian people. May 
God, in his own way and time, speed the day ! 



II. 



AGAINST A COMPEOMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 



"And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. 
And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was writ- 
ten, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to 
preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, 
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, 
to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of 
the Lord." — Luke iv. 17 - 19. 




one 



HESE words are remarkable, to-day, for 
their meaning and for their historical posi- 
tion. The first sermon which Christ made, 
upon entering his public ministry, was this 
at Nazareth, where he had been brought up. 
That he chose these words in entering upon his mis- 
sion — these words, of all the Law, of all the Psalms, 
and of all the Prophets — gives them peculiar signifi- 
cancy. And, when we consider their contents, they 
become yet more memorable, since they were the char- 
ter and index of his mission, — the text not only of 
his sermon, but of his life. Christ came to save the 
world, — not laws, not governments, not institutions, 
not dynasties, but the people. The fulfilment of his 
mission is to be looked for in the condition of nation^ 



* Thanksgiving Day, November 29, 1860. 



AGAINST A COMPROmSE OF PRINCIPLE. 29 

alities and the character of peoples. Though peace 
breathe balm over all the world, and every law is 
obeyed, and every government rides among the people, 
as a man-of-war dressed for holiday, upon a tranquil 
sea, there is no reason for rejoicing if the people are 
ignorant and their capacities are undeveloped, if they 
are mean and sordid, and their morals, like a Chinese 
foot, are cramped too small to walk upon. But 
though there be wars and rumors of war, revolutions 
and tumults, the world is prosperous if by these con- 
vulsions the race is freed from oppression, thoroughly 
aroused, and incited to bolder enterprise and to nobler 
moral character. 

We are, then, to study the advance of Christ's king- 
dom in the whole aspect of the world. The Church 
is of the people. God's Church includes the whole 
human race. Our separate churches are but doors to 
the grand spiritual interior. The good men who love 
God and man with overruling affection, of all nations, 
and of every tongue, are the true Church. 

To-day we are assembled to give thanks for national 
mercies. I need not remind you of the year that is 
closing. Who knew, when January set her cold, calm 
face toward the future, that she was the herald of 
such a summer? When was there ever a year so 
fertile ? so propitious to all industry ? It has been a 
procession of rejoicing months, flower-wreathed and 
fruit-laden, — a very holiday year ! 

The soil awoke with new ardor ; everything that 
lived by the soil felt the inspiration. Every root, and 
every blade, and every stem, and every bough has this 
year tasked itself for prodigal bounty. Except a 
narrow strip, this continent has been so blessed with 



30 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

husbandry as to make this year memorable even 
among years hitherto most eminent. The meadow, 
the tilled fields, the grazing pastures, the garden, the 
vineyard, the orchard, the very fence-row berry-bushes 
and wild wall-vines, have been clothed with unex- 
ampled bounty and beauty. Nature seems to have 
lacked messengers to convey her intents of kindness, 
and the summer, like a road surprised with quadruple 
freights, has not been able to find conveyance for all 
its treasures. The seas have felt the divine ardor. 
The fisherman never reaped such harvests from the 
moist furrows of the ocean as this year. These hus- 
bandmen of the sea, who reap where they have not 
sowed and grow rich upon harvests which they have 
not tilled, have this year put in the crooked hook for 
their sickle with admiring gladness for the strange 
and unwonted abundance of the deep. 

All the sons of God rejoice, and all good men re- 
joice. It needs but one element to complete the satis- 
faction. If we could be sure that this is God's mercy, 
meant for good, and tending thereto, we should have a 
full cup to-day. That satisfaction is not denied us. 
The Mayor of New York, in a public proclamation, in 
view of this prodigal year, that has heaped the poor 
man's house with abundance, is pleased to say that 
there is no occasion apparent to him for thanksgiving. 
"We can ask no more. When bad men grieve at the 
state of public affairs, good men should rejoice. 
When infamous men keep fast, righteous men should 
have thanksgiving. God reigns and the Devil trem- 
bles. Amen. Let us rejoice ! * 



. * Mayor Fernando Wood's proclamation is such a curiosity of wicked- 
ness, even in the annals of New York city, that we append it: — 



AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 31 

But it is not now to these topics that I shall confine 
my remarks. I propose to glance at other reasons for 
thanksgiving. 

1. The advantage and increasing influence of na- 
tions which, in the main, tend to conserve human 
liberty, and the decadence and dwindling of those 
nations that have flourished by exaction and tyranny, 
is matter of gratulation. It should make good men 
glad when wicked men and wicked nations grow 
weak. 

2. The emergence of the common people to that 
degree of political power that makes it necessary now 
for the whole of Western Europe to ask their permis- 
sion for the establishment of any throne or monarchy 
is cheering and auspicious. Crowns were once made 
of gold beaten out on the people's backs. Now the 
strongest crowns are made of paper, — the paper votes 
of the common people. Therein we rejoice, and will 
rejoice. 

"Mayor's Office, New- York, November 24, 1860. 

"Proclamation. — In accordance with custom and the proclamation 
of the Governor of the State, it becomes my duty, as Mayor, to recommend 
to the people of this city the observance of THURSDAY, the 29th inst., as 
a day of ' Thanksgiving and Prayer.' 

" While in my judgment the country, either in its political, commercial, 
or financial aspect, presents no features for which we should be thankful, 
we are yet called upon by every consideration of self-preservation to offer 
up to the Father of all mercies devout and fervent prayer, for his interpo- 
sition and pi-otection from the impending evils which threaten our institu- 
tions and the material interests of the people. 

" Therefore, acknowledging our dependence on Almighty God, and deeply 
sensible of our own unworthiness, let the day set apart as Thanksgiving 
be observed by the people of this city as one of humiliation and supplica- 
tion, — not omitting in our prayers the expression of the hope that those 
who have, in violation of the Federal compact, unpatriotically and un- 
wisely inflicted these injuries upon us, may be the only sufferers by their 
own wickedness and folly. 

*' [l. s.] Given under my hand and seal, the day and year aforesaid. 

"FERNANDO WOOD, Mayor." 



32 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

3. The resurrection of Italy is another memorable 
event of the year. I see as many tokens of a Divine 
presence in Italy as of old there were in the emanci- 
pation and conduct of the Israelites from Egypt. 
That such a conjunction of events should have taken 
place ; that such a monarch as Victor Emanuel," who 
almost reconciles republicans to kings, should have 
sat waiting ; that such a consummate statesman, of 
noblest patriotism, as Cavour, should have been pre- 
pared and waiting ; that such a hero, simple, true, 
pure, disinterested, self-sacrificing, skilful, and lion- 
like, as Garibaldi, should have come at the hour, are 
marks of the planning of God. Men never devise 
such combinations. It would have been significant 
had either of these men come singly. That all should 
have come together, — a soldier to beat down the old 
despotism, a statesman to organize the new liberty, 
a just and patriot king to preside over the people's 
government, and a people, divided for centuries, but 
now at last united, — this reveals the miiid and will 
of God. Let us rejoice ! 

4. The growing moderation of the Russian mon- 
archy, the quiet improvement of the people, the eman- 
cipation of the serfs-, ought to engage the attention 
and receive the sympathy of every Christian people. 
There is a great work begun in Russia. This gigantic 
nation, the antithesis of America politically and geo- 
graphically, is, like her, almost half a globe of herself. 
The end we cannot now even suspect. Prophets are 
dead. God no longer tells beforehand what he is 
going to do. But, by the clearing that has been made 
for the foundations, by the materials that are gather- 
ing, and by the workmen that are employed, we judge 



AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 83 

that no mean structure is about to arise to the glory 
of God. There is an immense History now in birth. 
Let us hope that the unmeasured future will be for 
Humanity, Justice, and Piety ! 

5. In the rest of the world there are signs, but 
more remote, of good. Heathen nations are growing 
weaker, Christian nations are growing stronger. The 
nations of Heathenism are imbecile. The nations of 
Christianity are of vigorous stock, and have a future. 
Already Christian nations rule the world. Who may 
war, how long, for what, with whom, depends upon 
the will of Christian peoples. There is a Christian 
police around this globe ! 

6. Our own land has not been behind. In this 
march of nations our country has kept step. We 
know it by the victory of ideas, by the recognition of 
principles instead of mere policies, by the ascendency 
of justice, and by the witnessing and ratifying rage of 
all who love oppression and oppressors. 

To-day should not be profaned by partisan congrat- 
ulations ; but we should be ungrateful to God, who 
has guided us through peril and darkness, and at 
length brought us forth into illustrious victory, if we 
did not to-day remember, with profound gratitude and 
devout thanksgiving, the resurrection of the spirit of 
liberty from the graves of our fathers ! 

The tree of life, whose leaves were for the healing 

of the nations, has been evilly dealt with. Its boughs 

have been lopped, and its roots starved till its fruit is 

knurly. Upon its top had been set scions of bitter 

fruits, that grew and sucked out all the sap from the 

better branches. Upon its trunk the wild boar of the 

forest had whetted his tusks. 

2* , o 



34 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

But now again it blooms. Its roots have found the 
river, and shall not want again for moisture ; the 
grafts of poisonous fruits have been broken off or 
have been blown out ; mighty spearmen have hunted 
the wild swine back to his thickets, and the hedge 
shall be broken down no more round about it. The 
air is fragrant in its opening buds, the young fruit is 
setting. God has returned and looked upon it, and 
behold, summer is in all its branches ! 

To some it may seem that the light in this picture 
is too high, and that the background is not dark 
enough. I do not wish you to think that the back- 
ground is not dark ; for it is. There is excitement. 
There is brewing mischief. The clouds lie lurid along 
the Southern horizon. The Caribbean Sea, that breeds 
tornadoes and whirlwinds, has heaped up treasures of 
storms portentous, that seem about to break. Let 
them break ! God has appointed their bounds. Not 
till the sea drives back the shore, and the Atlantic 
submerges the Continent, will this tumult of an angry 
people move the firm decrees of God. He who came 
to open prison doors, to deliver captives, to loose 
those that are bound, — he it is that is among us. 
We are surrounded by airy hosts greater than those 
which the prophet of old saw filling the mountains. 
God is with us. The very rage of wickedness shows 
his presence. 

While we tremble, then, let us rejoice ; not triumph, 
nor boast, nor make invidious comparisons, nor throw 
fuel of passions into the flames already too hot. But, 
with a sober, temperate, and beneficent joy, let us give 
thanks to God, that he has begun to recall this nation 
from a course that would have wrought utter destruc- 



AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 35 

tion ; and that now, though waves arc beating, and 
the tempest is upon the ship, she has changed her 
course, and heads right away from the breakers and 
the sand ! 

But be sure that, in these times, there can be no safe 
navigation except that which clings to great universal 
principles. Selfish interests, if they are our pilots, 
will betray us. Vainglory will destroy us. Pride 
will wreck us. Above all, the fear of doing right will 
be fatal. But justice and liberty are pilots that do 
not lose their craft. They steer by a divine compass. 
They know the hand that holds the winds and the 
storms. It is always safe to be right ; and our busi- 
ness is not so much to seek peace as to seek the causes 
of peace. Expedients are for an hour, but principles 
are for the ages. Just because the rains descend and 
winds blow, we cannot afford to build on shifting 
sands. Nothing can be permanent and nothing safe 
in this exigency that does not sink deeper than politics 
or money. We must touch the rock, or we shall never 
have firm foundations. 

I. Our prosperity had its beginning and continu- 
ance in Natural Laws. God's will in nature and in 
human society is the source of human strength and 
human wisdom. No matter how many are with you, 
if your councils are in the face of divine principles. 
Peace, regardless of equity, is a treacherous sleep, 
whose waking is death. It is not half so necessary to 
have a settlement as it is to have a right settlement. 
In the end, right political economy will work out 
prosperous national economy ; and if for want of faith 
in the safety of rectitude you abandon sound and 
proved principles, or let them go by default, all your 



36 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

good intentions will not save you from national mis- 
rule and national wasting and destruction. The 
mariner who should take refuge in the Maelstrom, 
thinking it a safe harbor, would learn quickly that 
good intentions are good follies when men run against 
natural law. And for men to think that this nation 
has been prospered on account of the skill, the wis- 
dom, or the arrangements or combinations of men, is 
the worst of infidelities. While papers and parties 
are in full outcry, and nostrums are advertised, and 
scared politicians are at their wits' ends, (without 
having gone far, either,) and men of weak minds are 
beside themselves, and imbeciles stand doubting in the 
streets, know ye that the way of peace is simple, 
accessible, and easy ! Be still. Stand firm. Have 
courage to wait. Money is insane. Fear is death. 
Faith in Justice, and in Rectitude, and Trust in 
God, will work out safety. The worst is over. Our 
Northern apathy to freedom and our greed of com- 
merce are a thousand times more dangerous than 
Southern rage and threat. Moral bankruptcy will 
ruin us all. No other bankruptcies will harm us ! 

Let us have firm courage, kindness of temper, wil- 
lingness to make concessions in things of mere policy, 
but no concession of principles, no yielding of moral 
convictions, no paltering with our consciences. Thirty 
pieces of silver bought Christ and hung Judas. If 
you sell your convictions to Fear, you give yourself to 
a vagabond. If you sell your conscience to Interest, 
you traffic with a fiend. The fear of doing right is 
the grand treason in times of danger. When you 
consent to give up your convictions of justice, hu- 
manity, and liberty, for the sake of tranquillity, you 



AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 37 

are like men who buy a treacherous truce of tyrants 
by giving up their weapons of war. Cowards are the 
food of despots. 

When a storm is on the deep, and the ship labors, 
men throw over the deck-load ; they cast forth the 
heavy freights, and ride easier as their merchandise 
grows less. But in our time men propose to throw 
overboard the compass, the charts, the chronometer, 
and sextant, but to keep the freight ! 

For the sake of a principle our fathers dared to 
defy the proudest nation on the globe. They suffered. 
They conquered. We are never tired of praising 
them. But when we are called to stand firm for 
principle, we tremble, we whine, we evade duty, 
and shuffle up a compromise, by which we may sell 
our conscience, and save our pocket. 

It is rank infidelity, and, at such a time as this, stu- 
pendous infatuation, to suppose that the greatness of 
this nation ever sprung from the wisdom of expedi- 
ency, instead of the power of settled principles. Your 
harbor did not make you rich ; you made the harbor 
rich. Your ships did not create your commerce ; 
your commerce created your ships ; and you created 
your commerce. Your stores did not make traffic. 
Your factories did not create enterprise. Your firms, 
your committees, your treaties, and your legislation 
did not create national prosperity. Our past great- 
ness sprung from our obedience to God's natural and 
moral law. We had men trained to courage, to vir- 
tue, to wisdom. And manhood, — manhood^ — man- 
hood, — exercised in the fear of God, has made this 
nation. Men are God's vicegerents ; and if they will 
govern as he governs, then they shall be creators, too, 



38 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

in this world. The reason we have prospered in days 
past is not that we have known how to duck and 
dodge and trim ; it is not that we have known all 
the minute ways of microscopic statesmanship: it is 
because we have known just enough to see the way in 
which natural law and God's kingdom were going, 
and to follow them. It is a simple thing ; it is no 
secret ; and accursed be he that counsels the people 
to seek peace and prosperity by abandoning the causes 
of it, and that leads them into destruction by leading 
them into the arms of a tinselled folly ! 

II. Let no man be foolishly fearful of Excitement. 
Our age marks the growth of the world by this : that 
excitement is now wholesome. When men low down 
in the scale begin to be stirred, the most active part is 
excited, which is passion. But when men have out- 
grown barbarism, and live in moral and intellectual 
elements, then excitement rouses up the higher na- 
ture. Among a savage people, excitement works 
downward and rages ; among a Christian and civil- 
ized people, it works upward and toward peace. Ex- 
citements among a thinking people tend to clearer 
convictions, to surer intuitions, to more heroic pur- 
poses, and loftier enthusiasms. Do not be afraid be- 
cause the community teems with excitement. Silence 
and death are dreadful. The rush of life, the vigor 
of earnest men, the conflict of realities, invigorates, 
cleanses, and establishes truth. Our only fear should 
be lest we refuse God's work. He has appointed this 
people, and our day, for one of those world-battles on 
which ages turn. Ours is a pivotal period. The strife 
is between a dead past and a living future ; between a 
wasting evil and a nourishing good ; between Barba- 
rism and Civilization. 



AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 39 

The condition of the common people always meas- 
ures the position of any nation on the scale of civiliza- 
tion. The condition of Work always measures the 
character of the common people. It is not where the 
head is, but where the feet are, that determines a na- 
tion's position. By ascertaining where the working 
people are in the North and in the South, you can 
determine the respective positions of these two sec- 
tions of our country. I need not tell you what is the 
relative position of these two extremes and opposites 
on any scale of Christian civilization. 

The Southern States and the Northern alike found 
poisonous seed sown in colonial days. The North 
chose to weed it out. The South determined to cul- 
tivate it, and see what it would bear. The harvest- 
time has now come. We are reaping what we sowed. 
They sowed the wind, and they are about to reap the 
whirlwind. Let us keep in view the causes of things. 
Our prosperity is the fruit of the seed that we sowed, 
and their fears, their alarms, their excitements, their 
fevers, their tumults, and their rages are the fruit of 
the seed that they sowed. Ours is wholesome ; theirs 
is poisonous. All, now, that we demand is, that each 
side shall reap its own harvest. 

It is this that convulses the South. They wish to 
reap fruits of liberty from the seed of slavery. They 
wish to have an institution which sets at naught 
the laws of God, and yet be as refined and pros- 
perous and happy as we are, who obey these laws ; 
and since they cannot, they demand that we shall 
make up to them what they lack. The real gist 
of the controversy, as between the greatest number 
of Southern States and the North, is simply this. 



40 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

The South claims that the United States government 
is bound to make slavery as good as liberty for all 
purposes of national life. That is the root of their 
philosophy. They are to carry on a wasting system, 
a system that corrupts social life in its very elements, 
to pursue a course of inevitable impoverishment, and 
yet, at every decade of years, the government is, by 
some new bounty and privilege, to make up to them 
all the waste of this gigantic mistake ! And our 
national government has been made a bribed judge, 
sitting on the seat of authority in this land, to declare 
bankruptcy as good as honesty ; to declare wickedness 
as good as virtue ; and to declare that there shall be 
struck, from period to period, a rule that will bring 
all men to one common municipal and communal 
prosperity, no matter what may be the causes that 
are working out special evils in them. 
„' The Southern States, then, have organized society 
j around a rotten core, — slavery : the North has or- 
/ ganized society about a vital heart, — liberty. At 
' length both stand mature. They stand in proper 
contrast. God holds them up to ages and to nations, 
that men may see the difference. Now that there is a 
conflict, I ask which is to yield ? Causes having been 
true to effects, and effects true to causes ; these grad- 
ually unfolding commercial and political and moral 
results having been developed in the two great oppos- 
ing extremes of this country, the time has come in 
which they are so brought into contact that the prin- 
ciple of the one or the principle of the other must 
yield. Liberty must discrown her fair head ; she 
must lay her opal crown and her diamond sceptre 
upon the altar of Oppression ; or else Oppression must 



AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 41 

shrink, and veil its head, and depart. Which shall it 
be ? Two queens are not to rule in this land, one 
black and the other white ; one from below and the 
other from above. Two influences are not to sit in 
culminated power at the seat of influence in this 
nation, one dragging and pulling toward the infernal, 
and the other drawing and exciting toward the super- 
nal. No nation could stand the strain to which it 
would be subjected under such a state of things. 

There is a Divine impulsion in this. Those who 
resist and those who strive are carried along by a 
stream mightier than mere human volition. Whether 
men have acted well or ill, is not now the question ; 
but simply this : On which side will you he found ? 
This controversy will go on. No matter what you do, 
God will carry out his own providences with you or 
without you, by you or against you. You cannot 
hide or run away, or shift the question, or stop the 
trial. Complaints are useless, and recriminations 
foolish and wicked. 

The distinctive idea of the Free States is Christian 
civilization, and the peculiar institutions of civiliza- 
tion. The distinctive idea of the South is barbaric 
institutions. In the North mind, and in the South 
force, rules. In the North every shape and form of 
society in some way represents liberty. In the South 
every institution and element of society is tinged and 
pervaded with slavery. The South accepts the whole 
idea of slavery, boldly and consistently. The North 
will never have peace till she with equal boldness 
accepts liberty. 

While liberty and slavery are kept apart, and only 
rim upon parallels, there may be peace. But there is 



42 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

no way in which they can be combined ; there is no 
unity made up of these deadly antagonisms. And 
all devices, and cunning arrangements, and deceitful 
agreements, are false and foolish. 

The truth that men cannot hush, and that God will 
not have covered up, is the irreconcilable difference 
between liberty and slavery ! Which will you advo- 
cate and defend ? 

There are three courses before us : — 

1. To go over to the South. 

2. To compromise principles. 

3. To maintain principles upon just and constitu- 
tional grounds, and abide the issue. 

1. Shall we, then, obliterate from our statute-books 
every law for liberty ? Shall we rub down and efface 
every clear and distinctive feature of Hberty? Shall 
we assume that one is just as good as the other, — 
slavery and freedom ? Are we, for the sake of peace, 
to go over to the South, yield our convictions, and 
our moral influences, and our whole soul and body 
of teaching and conviction ? 

This course is not to be thought of for a moment, 
whatever it may be theoretically considered. As a 
matter of fact, you know, and I know, and every- 
body knows, that there will be no change in the 
convictions of the North. We have reaped too 
bountifully from the seed we have sown to change. 
Our method of moral and political tillage will be the 
same as heretofore. 

2. Shall we then compromise ? We are told that 
Satan appears under two forms : that when he has 
a good fair field, he is out like a lion, roaring and 
seeking whom he may devour ; but that when he can 



AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF rRINCIPLE. 43 

do nothing more in that way, he is a serpent, and 
sneaks in the grass. And so, it is slavery open, bold, 
roaring, aggressive, or it is slavery sneaking in the 
grass, and calling itself compromise. It is the same 
devil under either name. 

If by compromise is only meant forbearance, kind- 
ness, well-wishing, conciliation, fidelity to agreements, 
a concession in things, not principles ; why, then we 
believe in compromise, — only that is not compromise, 
interpreted by the facts of our past history ! We 
honestly wish no harm to the South or its people : we 
honestly wish them all benefit. We wish no harm to 
their commerce ; none to their manufactures ; none to 
their husbandry ; none to their schools and colleges ; 
none to their churches and families ; none to their 
citizens, who are bone of our bone and blood of our 
blood, and who are in many eminent respects imited 
to us in a common historic glory. We are far from 
wishing them diminution or feebleness ; so far from 
it, we most heartily and sincerely, and with much 
more earnestness than they reciprocate, wish them 
riddance of their trouble. We neither envy nor covet 
their territory. We are not jealous of their honors. 
We would that they were doubled, and doubly purified. 
All that belongs to the South ; all that with liberalest 
construction was put in the original bond, shall be 
hers. Her own institutions were made inviolate in 
all her States. The basis of representation in the 
South was made broader than in the North, and 
property, as well as citizens, sends representatives to 
Washington. We will not complain. The common 
revenue and the common force of the nation protect 
them against intestine revolt. Let it be so. The 



44 FREEDOM AND WAE. 

Constitution gives them liberty to retake their fugitive 
slaves wherever they can find them. Very well. Let 
them. But when the Congress goes beyond the Con- 
stitution, and demands, on penalty, that citizens of 
free States shall help, and render back the flying 
slave, we give a blunt and unequivocal refusal. We 
are determined to break any law that commands us 
to enslave or re-enslave a man, and we are willing to 
take the penalty. But that was not in the original 
bond. That is a parasitic egg, laid in the Constitu- 
tion by corrupt legislation or by construction. 

We do not ask to molest the South in the enjoy- 
ment of her own institutions. But we will not be 
made constables to slavery, to run and catch, to serve 
writs, and return prisoners. No political hand shall 
rob her. We will defend her coast ; we will guard 
her inland border from all vexations from without ; 
and in good faith, in earnest friendship, in fealty to 
the Constitution and in fellowship with the States, 
we will, and with growing earnestness to the end, 
fulfil every just duty, every honorable agreement, 
and every generous act, within the limits of truth 
and honor ; all that, and no more, — no more^ though 
the heavens fall, — no more, if States unclasp their 
hands, — no more, if they raise up violence against 

us, — NO MORE ! 

We have gone to the end. There is no need of • 
compromise in this matter, then. It is a plain, simple 
matter. It is never mystified except when bad men 
have bad ends to accomplish, and bring up a mist 
over it. 

Let us look things right in the face, then, and speak 
some plain truths. We are approaching times when 



AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 45 

men will not hear what they will listen to now ; so let 
us drop the seed beforehand. 

1. The secret intentions of those men who are the 
chief fomenters of troubles in the South cannot in 
anywise be met by compromise. They dread as much 
as we hate it. What do those men that are really 
at the bottom of this conspiracy mean ? Nothing 
more or less than this : Southern empire for slavery, 
and the reopening of the slave-trade as a means by 
which it shall be fed. Free commerce and enslaved 
work is their motto. They will not yet say it aloud. 
But that is the whispered secret of men in Carolina, 
and men outside of Carohna. Their secret purpose 
is to sweep westward like night, and involve in the 
cloud of their darkness all Centrq.1 America, and 
then make Africa empty into Central America, thus 
changing the moral geography of the globe. And do 
you suppose any compromise will settle that design, 
or turn it aside, when they have made you go down 
on your knees, and they stand laughing while you 
cry with fear because you have been cozened and 
juggled into a blind helping of their monstrous wick- 
edness ? 

They mean slavery. They mean an Empire of 
Slavery. They don't any longer talk of the evil of 
slavery. It is a virtue, a religion ! It is justice and 
divine economy ! Slaves are missionaries. Slave- 
ships bring heathen to plantation-Christianity. They 
imagine unobstructed greatness when servile hands 
shall whiten the plains from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
with cotton. Carolina despises compromise. She 
means no such thing as liberty. She does not believe 
in the word. It is rubbed out. It is gone from her 



46 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

constitution and from her Bible. Its spirit is de- 
parted from her legislature and her church. 

And do you think, poor simple peeping sparrow, 
that you can build your poor moss and hair nest of 
compromise on the face of the perpendicular cliff, that 
towers a thousand feet high, with the blackness of 
storms sweeping round its top, and the thunder of a 
turbulent ocean breaking upon its base, — and God, 
more terrible than either, high above them, meaning 
Justice and Retribution ! 

2. But in so far as those States are concerned that 
are contiguous to Carolina, and do not mean these 
things, even for them compromise can never reach, 
nor even any longer mollify, the causes of complaint ; 
for I hold that the causes are inherent in them, not in 
us. And they are endless. If you cure one, another 
will spring up in its place. You cannot compromise 
with them except by giving up your own belief, your 
own principles, and your own honor. Moral apostasy 
is the only basis on which you can build a compromise 
that will satisfy the South ! 

No compromise will do good that does not go back 
to the nature of things, and change moral qualities. 
To be of any use, compromise must make the slaves 
contented, slavery economical. Slave States as pros- 
perous * as Free States. Compromise must shut the 
mouth of free speech, or it will send the shafts of 
truth vibrating into the midst of slavery. Compro- 
mise must cure the intolerance of the plantation, the 
essential tyranny of slave-owners. It must make evil 
as prosperous as good, enforced drudgery as fruitful 
as free labor. 

What compromise can there be between sickness 



AGAINST A COMPROmSE OF PRINCIPLE. 47 

and health ? Between violence and peace ? Between 
speech for liberty and speech for despotism ? There 
may be peace between opposites, but no harmony, no 
compromise. If the South is fixed in her servile 
institutions, the North must be equally firm in her 
principles of liberty. 

You cannot prevent, in the present state of this 
land, the departure of the children of oppression. 
You might as well attempt to prevent the tides of the 
Atlantic ocean. You might as well attempt to pre- 
vent vegetation in the tropics. Till the heavens be no 
more, and their orbs cease to draw, men will aspire, 
and will follow aspiration. There is too much Hght 
in the North, and even in the darkness of the planta- 
tion, to keep men in slavery. When one man gains 
his freedom, twenty men will know it, and to gain 
theirs will do what he did. Every hour there will be 
men who will take their life in their hands and risk 
all for liberty. It is of no use to tell the South that 
it shall not be so. It is of no use to whisper to them, 
and say, " Your trouble shall cease ; we will fix this 
matter to your satisfaction." God never made brick 
or trowel by which to patch up that door of escape. 
By night and by day slaves will flee away and escape. 

Compromise is a most pernicious sham. To send 
compromises to the South would be like sending 
painted bombs into the camp of an enemy, which, 
though harmless in appearance, would blow up and 
destroy them. Suppose you tell the people there that 
when their fugitives come North they shall be sur- 
rendered ? Will you not please to catch them first ? 
You know you cannot. There are five hundred men 
that run through the Northern States where there is 



48 FREEDOM AND WAE. 

one that stops or is turned back. They know it, you 
know it, we all know it ! The radical nature of the 
feelings of the North is such that they will hurry on 
the black man and trip his hunter. If the managers 
of parties, the heads of conservative committees, say 
to the South, " Be patient with us a little longer, do 
not punish us yet, let down the rod and the frown, 
spare us for a short season, and we will see that your 
slaves are returned to you," do you suppose there will 
be a fulfilment of the promise ? You know there will 
not. I know there will not. I would die myself, 
cheerfully and easily, before" a man should be taken 
out of my hands when I had the power to give him 
liberty, and the hound was after him for his blood. I 
would stand as an altar of expiation between slavery 
and liberty, knowing that through my example a 
million men would live. A heroic deed, in which one 
yields up his life for others, is his Calvary. It was the 
lifting up of Christ on that hill-top that made it the 
loftiest mountain on the globe. Let a man do a right 
thing with such earnestness that he counts his life 
of little value, and his example becomes omnipotent. 
Therefore it is said that the blood of the saints is the 
seed of the Church. There is no such seed planted in 
this world as good blood. 

I see that my words are being reported ; and as free 
speech may get into Charleston, some men there may 
see what I say ; and let me say this to my Southern 
brethren : We mean to observe the Constitution, and 
keep every compact into which we have entered. 
There are men that would deceive you. They are 
your enemies and ours alike. They would tell lies to 
you, but we will not stand up and indorse them. I 



AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF rRINCIPLE, 49 

tell you that as long as there are these Free States ; 
as long as there are hills in which men can hide, and 
valleys through which they can travel ; as long as 
there is a loaf in the cabin, and water in the cruse ; 
as long as there is blood in the veins, and humanity 
in the heart, — so long the fugitive will not want for 
sympathy and help to escape ! 

I say, again, that we are bound, as men of truth and 
conscience, to look this matter in the face, and ask, 
" Is there any benefit to be expected from compro- 
mises ? " My friends, we are not reasoning about a 
matter of which we have had no experience. From 
the beginning we have been living on compromises. 
Now there is a history, and we can make scientific 
inductions from facts, and know the results of certain 
courses. Do you suppose that if, knowing what you 
know now, you had sat in the original Convention to 
frame the Constitution, you would have made com- 
promises ? Persons say, " Are you wiser than your 
fathers ? " Yes I A man that is not wiser than his 
father, ought not to have had such a father, if his 
father was wise ! Our fathers, when they laid the 
foundations of that structure, did the best that the 
wisdom of that time would enable them to do ; and 
they were wise men, — much wiser, doubtless, for their 
time, than we are for ours. But, nevertheless, we 
may know now, better than they did then, what their 
wisest course would have been. When Carolina re- 
fused to come into the Confederacy except on the 
ground of certain favors to slavery, then was the time 
to have said to her, " Stay out." 

Do you suppose that when Carolina infamously said, 
" I will not come in unless you will give me leave to 



50 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

traffic in slaves from 1790 till 1808," — do you sup- 
pose that then it was wise for our fathers to give her 
what she demanded ? I do not blame them ; they 
acted up to the best light they had ; but if we, know- 
ing the facts that we know now, had done what they 
did, we should have been infamous. 

When, later, the compromise of 1850 was set on 
foot, there were not wanting, as there are not wanting 
now, men who lifted up their voices in favor of com- 
promise ; and I think that very few who saw the 
effects of compromise at that time beUeve it to be 
a cure. They promised finality. They took renewed 
courage, and with a strong arm of injustice destroyed 
a compromise still anterior to theirs, — namely, the 
Missouri Compromise, — itself a wickedness only par- 
alleled by that which destroyed it. It ought not to 
have been made ; but after it was made, it should 
have been removed only for purposes of liberty, and 
not for purposes of oppression. We sold our birth- 
right for a mess of pottage, and the pottage was then 
stolen ! 

We have had, then, a long experience of the virtues 
and merits of compromise ; and what has been the 
result, except growing demands, growing impudence, 
growing wickedness, and increasing dissatisfaction, 
until at last excitements that used to come once in 
twenty years began to come at every ten, and now once 
in four years, and you cannot elect a President strictly 
according to constitutional methods, without having 
this nation imperilled, banks shaken, stores overturned, 
panics created, and citizens terrified ? You have come 
to that state in which the whole nation is turmoiled, 
and agitated, and driven hither and thither, on ac- 
count of the evil effects of compromise. 



AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 51 

It is asked, " What shall we do ? " We should 
speak the truth about our feelings, and about our in- 
tentions. The North should have nothing to do with 
half-way measures or half-way men. A whole man is 
good if he is imperfect ; but a half-way man has no 
place in heaven, he has no place in hell, and he is not 
wanted on earth ! We do not want half-way measures, 
nor half-way men. We want true men, who will say 
to the South : " The North loves liberty, and will 
have it. We will not aggress on you. Keep your 
institutions within your own bounds : we will not 
hinder you. We will not take advantage to destroy, 
or one whit to abate, your fair political prerogatives. 
You have already gained advantages of us. These we 
will allow you to hold. You shall have the Constitu- 
tion intact, and its full benefit. The full might and 
power of public sentiment in the North shall guaran- 
tee to you everything that history and the Constitution 
give you. But if you ask us to augment the area of 
slavery ; to co-operate with you in cursing new terri- 
tory; if you ask us to make the air of the North 
favorable for a slave's breath, we will not do it ! We 
love liberty as much as you love slavery, and we shall 
stand by our rights with all the vigor with which we 
mean to stand by justice toward you." 

In short, the North cannot love slavery or cease to 
love liberty ; she cannot conceal her sentiments or re- 
strain their moral power ; she cannot prevent the irri- 
tating contrast between Free States and Slave States ; 
she cannot prevent the growing inteUigence of slaves, 
nor their love of liberty, nor their disposition to seek 
it, nor the sympathy that every generous soul must 
feel, nor the humane and irresistible wish that they 



52 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

may succeed in obtaining freedom ; we cannot sympa- 
thize with the hounds that hunt them, nor with the 
miscreants employed to witness against them, nor with 
the disgraced Federal officers that are bribed with 
double fees to convict them : the North cannot either 
permit her own citizens — colored men, Christians, 
honest and industrious, and many of them voters a 
thousand times better fitted for the franchise than the 
ignorant hordes of imported white men that have 
cheated their way against law and morals to the exer- 
cise of the vote — to be subject to seizure as slaves 
under the odious and ruthless provisions of an insult- 
ing Fugitive Slave Law, without providing for them 
State protection ; we will not assist in inflicting upon 
free territory an evil which we abhor, and which we 
believe to be the greatest blight that can curse a 
people ; we will not accept the new-fangled and modern 
doctrine that slavery is national and universal instead 
of the doctrine of our fathers of the Revolution and 
of the Federal Constitution, who regarded slavery as 
local, existing not in the right of a national law, 
but only by force of special law : certainly we will 
not apostatize from the faith of our fathers only for 
the sake of committing disgraceful crimes against 
liberty ! 

Let not the South listen to any man who pretends 
that the North will look kindly or compromisingiy 
upon slavery. Li every other respect we may be de- 
pended upon for all sympathy, aid, and comfort. In 
this thing we shall give the strictest and most literal 
obedience to those constitutional requirements which 
we hate while we obey, and beyond bare and meagre 
duty we will not go a step. 



AGAINST A COMPROMISE OF PRINCIPLE. 53 

Now, can any man believe that peace can come by 
co77ip?'omise ? It is a delusive hope. It is a desperate 
shift of cowardice. It will begin in deceit and end 
in anger. Compromises are only procrastinations of 
an inevitable settlement with the added burden of 
accumulated interest. Our political managers only 
renew the note with compound interest, and roll the 
debt over, and over, until the interest exceeds the 
principal. It is time for a settlement. We may as 
well have it now as ever. We shall never be better 
prepared. It will never be so easy as now. It would 
have been easier ten years ago, and yet easier ten 
years before that. Like an ulcer, this evil eats deeper 
every day. Unless soon cauterized or excised, it will 
touch the vitals, and then the patient dies ! 

The supreme fear of Northern cities is pecuniary. 
But even for money's sake, there should be a set- 
tlement that will stay settled. Compromises bury 
troubles, but cannot keep down their ghosts. They 
rise, and walk, and haunt, and gibber. We must 
bury our evils without resurrection. Let come what 
will, — secession, disunion, revolted States, and a raga- 
muffin empire of bankrupt States, confederated in the 
name of liberty for oppression, or whatever other 
monstrosity malignant fortune may have in store, — 
nothing can be worse than this endless recurring 
threat and fear, — this arrogant dragooning of the 
South, — this mercantile cringing in the North. Every 
interest cries out for Eest. It scarcely matters how 
low we begin. We have a recuperative enterprise, a 
fertile industry, a wealth of resources, which will soon 
replace any waste. Let the gates of a permanent set- 
tlement be set up in bleak and barren granite, and we 



54 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

will speedily cover them with the evergreen ivy of our 
industry. But perpetual uncertainty is destructive 
of all business. That is not a settlement that only 
hides, that adjourns, that trumps up a compromise 
against the known feelings of both parties, and which 
must inevitably fall to pieces as soon as the hands 
that make it are taken off. Shall every quadrennial 
election take place in the full fury of Southern 
threats ? Is the plantation-whip to control our ballot- 
boxes ? Shall Northern sentiment express itself by 
constitutional means, at the peril of punishment ? 
Must panic follow elections? and bankruptcy follow 
every expression of liberty ? And what are the 
precious advantages which the North reaps, which 
make it worth her while to undergo such ignominy 
and such penalty ? 

Every advantage that can be reckoned belongs to 
the North. Ours is the population. Ours is free 
labor. Ours is a common people not ashamed of toil, 
and able to make Work a badge of honor. Ours is 
popular intelligence, competitive industry, ingenuity 
and enterprise. We put the whole realm and wealth 
of Freedom and Civilization against Slavery and Bar- 
barism, and ask what have we to fear ? If secession 
and separation must come, — which God forbid! — 
which can best bear it, freedom or slavery ? 

The North must accept its own principles and take 
the consequences. Manliness demands this, — Honor 
demands it. But if we will not heed worthier mo- 
tives, then Interest demands it. If even this is not 
strong enough for commercial pusillanimity, then 
Necessity, inevitable and irresistible, will drive and 
scourge us to it! 



AGAINST A COMPEOmSE OF rRINCIPLE. 65 

When night is on the deep, when the headlands are 
obscured by the darkness, and when storm is in the 
air, that man who undertakes to steer by looking over 
the side of the ship, over the bow, or over the stern, 
or by looking at the clouds or his own fears, is a fool. 
There is a silent needle in the binnacle, which points 
like the finger of God, telling the mariner which way 
to steer, and enabling him to outride the storm, and 
reach the harbor in safety. And what the compass 
is to navigation, that is moral principle in political 
affairs. Whatever the issue may be, we have but one 
thing to do, and that is to look where the compass of 
God points, and steer that way. You need not fear 
shipwreck when God is the pilot. 

The latter-day glory is already dawning. God is ' 
calling to the nations. The long-oppressed are arous- 
ing. The despotic thrones are growing feeble. It is 
an age of liberty. The trumpet is sounding in all the 
world, and one nation after another is moving to the 
joyful sound, and God is mustering the great army 
of liberty under his banners ! In this day, shall 
America be found laggard ? While despotisms are 
putting off the garments of oppression, shall she pluck 
them up and put them on ? While France and Italy, 
Germany and Russia, are advancing toward the dawn, 
shall we recede toward midnight ? 

From this grand procession of nations, with faces 
lightened by liberty, shall we be missing ? While they 
advance toward a brighter day, shall we, with faces 
lurid with oppression, slide downward toward the pit 
which gapes for injustice and crime ? 

Let every good man arouse and speak the truth for 
liberty. Let us have an invincible courage for liberty. 



56 



FREEDOM AND WAR. 



Let US have moderation in passions, zeal in moral 
sentiments, a spirit of conciliation and concession in 
mere material interests, but unmovable firmness for 



principles ; and 
— for Liberty ! 



•foremost of all political principles 




HI. 

OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS* 



*' And there arose a great storm of -wind, and the waves beat into the 
ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, 
asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest 
thou not that we perish? And he arose and rebuked the wind, and said 
unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great 
calm." — Mark iv. 37 - 39. 

jT the close of a laborious day, onr Saviour 
entered a ship, upon the lake of Gennesaret, 
to cross to the other side. Wearied by his 
great tasks of mercy, which had filled the 
day, he fell asleep. Meantime, a sudden and vio- 
lent wind, to which that lake is even yet subject, 
swept down from the hills, and wellnigh overwhelmed 
them. They were not ignorant of navigation, nor 
unacquainted with that squally sea. Like good men 
and true, doubtless, they laid about them. They took 
in sail, and put out oars, and, heading to tlie wind, 

* During the winter of 1859-60 the South and its Democratic allies 
at the North were industriously charging the unhappy state of the coun- 
try upon the Eepublican party, and imputing it to excesses and fanaticisms 
in the name of liberty. This sermon was preached January 4, 1861, the 
Fast Day appointed by President Buchanan. It was intended to show 
that, while the nation undoubtedly had ample reason for fasting, humilia- 
tion, and confession, this reason was, not that too much had been done for 
libert\\ but too little. 

3* 



58 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

valiantly bore up against the gale, and thought noth- 
ing of asking help till they had exerted every legiti- 
mate power of their own. But the waves overleaped 
their slender bulwarks, and filled the little vessel past 
all bailing. 

Then, when they had done all that men could do, 
but not till then, they aroused the sleeping Christ and 
implored his succor. Not for coming to him did he 
rebuke them, but for coming with such terror of de- 
spair, saying to them. Why are ye so fearful ? How 
is it that ye have no faith? He outbreathed upon 
the winds, and their strength quite forsook them. He 
looked upon the surly waves, and they hasted back 
to their caverns. There is no tumult in the heavens, 
on the earth, nor upon the sea, that Christ's word 
cannot control. When it pleases God to speak, tem- 
pestuous clouds are peaceful as flocks of doves, and 
angry seas change all their roar to rippling music. 

This nation is rolling helplessly in a great tempest. 
The Chief Magistrate in despair calls us to go to the 
sleeping Saviour, and to beseech his Divine interfer- 
ence. It may be true that the crew have brought the 
ship into danger by cowardice or treachery ; it may 
be true that a firm hand on the wheel would even yet 
hold her head to the wind, and ride out the squall. 
But what of that ? 

Humiliation and prayer are never out of order. 
This nation has great sins unrepented of; and what- 
ever may be our own judgment of the wisdom of 
public men in regard to secular affairs, we cannot 
deny that in this respect they have hit rarely well. 
Instead of finding fault with the almost only wise act 
of many days, let us rather admire with gratitude 
this unexpected piety of men in high places. 



OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 69 

This government is in danger of subversion ; and 
surely, while the venerable Chief Magistrate of this 
nation, and all the members of his Cabinet, are doubt- 
less this day religiously abstaining from food, accord- 
ing to the proclamation, and humbly confessing their 
manifold sins, it would ill become us to go uncon- 
cerned and negligent of such duties of piety and 
patriotism. Nor need we be inconveniently frank and 
critical. What if some shall say that fasting is a poor 
substitute for courage, and prayer a miserable equiva- 
lent for fidelity to duty ? What if the national au- 
thorities have not only appointed the Fast, but afforded 
sufficient material in their own conduct for observing 
it ? It is all the more necessary on that account that 
we should pause, and humble ourselves before God, 
and implore his active interference. 

But however monstrous the pretence of trouble may 
be, the danger is the same. Government is in danger 
of subversion. No greater disaster could befall this 
continent or the world ; for such governments fall 
but once, and then there is no resurrection. Since 
there is no famine in the land, no pestilence, no in- 
vasion of foreign foe, no animosity of the industrial 
classes against each other, or against their employers, 
whence is our danger ? from what quarter come these 
clouds, drifting with bolts of war and destruction ? 
Over the Gulf the storm hangs lurid! From the 
treacherous Caribbean sea travel the darkness and 
swirlmg tornadoes ! 

What part of this complicated Government has at 
last broken down ? Is it the legislative ? the judicial ? 
the executive ? Has experience shown us that this 
costly machine, like many another, is more ingenious 



60 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

than practicable ? Not another nation in the world, 
not a contemporanous government, during the past 
seventy-five years, can compare, for regularity, sim- 
plicity of execution, and for a wise and facile accom- 
plishment of the very ends of government, with ours. 
And yet, what is the errand of this day ? Why are 
we observing a sad Sabbath ? a day of humiliation ? 
a day of supplication ? It is for the strangest reason 
that the world ever heard. It is because the spirit 
of liberty has so increased and strengthened among 
us, that the Government is in danger of being over- 
thrown ! There never before was such an occasion 
for fasting, humiliation, and prayer ! Other nations 
have gone through revolutions to find their liberties. 
We are on the eve of a revolution to put down 
liberty ! Other people have thrown off their gov- 
ernments because too oppressive. Ours is to be de- 
stroyed, if at all, because it is too full of liberty, too 
full of freedom. There never was such an event 
before in* history. 

But however monstrous the pretence, the danger 
is here. In not a few States of this Union reason 
seems to have fled, and passion rules. To us who 
have been bred in cooler latitudes and under more 
cautious maxims, it seems incredible that men should 
abandon their callings, break up the industries of the 
community, and give themselves up to the wildest 
fanaticism, at the expense of every social and civil 
interest, and without the slightest reason or cause in 
their relations to society and to the country, past or 
future. 

Communities, like individuals, are liable to aberra- 
tions of mind. Panics and general excitements seem 



OUR BLAMEWORTfflNESS. 61 

to move by laws as definite as those which control 
epidemics or the pestilence. And in one portion of 
our land such an insanity now rules. Cities are 
turned into camps. All men are aping soldiers. 
For almost a thousand miles there is one wild riot 
of complaint and boasting. Acts of flagrant wrong 
are committed against the Federal Government. And 
these things are but the prelude. It is plainly de- 
jclared that this Government shall be broken up, and 
many men mean it ; and that the President elect of 
this great nation shall never come to the place ap- 
pointed by this people. Riot and civil war, with 
their hideous train of murders, revenges, and secret 
villanies, are gathering their elements, and hang in 
ominous terror over the capital of this nation. 

Meanwhile, we have had no one to stand up for 
order. Those who should have spoken in decisive 
authority ha've been — afraid I Severer words have 
been used: it is enough for me to say only that in 
a time when God, and providence, and patriotism, 
and humanity demanded courage, they had nothing 
to respond but fear. The heart has almost ceased 
to beat, and this Government is like to die for want 
of pulsations at the centre. While the most humili- 
ating fear paralyzes one part of the Government, the 
most wicked treachery is found in other parts of it. 
Men advanced to the highest places by the power of 
our Constitution, have employed their force to destroy 
that Constitution. They are using their oath as a 
soldier uses his shield, to cover and protect them 
while they are mining the foundations, and opening 
every door, and unfastening every protection by 
which colluding traitors may gain easy entrance 



62 FEEEDOM AND WAR. 

and fatal success. Gigantic dishonesties, meanwhile, 
stalk abroad almost without shame. And this Puri- 
tan land, this free Government, these United States, 
like old Rome in her latest imperial days, helpless 
at the court, divided among her own citizens, over- 
hung by hordes of Goths and Barbarians, seems about 
to be swept with the fury of war and revolution. 

If at such a solemn crisis as this men refuse to 
look at things as they are ; to call their sins to re-, 
membrance ; to confess and forsake them ; if they 
shall cover over the great sins of this people, and 
confess only in a sentimental way, (as one would 
solace an evening sadness by playing some sweet and 
minor melody,) then we may fear that God has in- 
deed forsaken his people. But if we shall honestly 
confess our real sins ; if we propose to cleanse our- 
selves from them ; if we make prayer not a substitute 
for action, but an incitement to it ; if we rise from 
our knees this day more zealous for temperance, for 
honesty, for real brotherhood, for pure and undefiled 
religion, and for that which is the sum and product of 
them all, regulated liberty to all men, then will the 
clouds begin to break, and we shall see the blue shin- 
ing through, and the sun, erelong, driving away the 
tumultuous storm, shall come back in triumph. 

1. It is well, then, that every one of us make this 
day the beginning of a solemn review of his own life, 
and the tendencies of his own conduct and character. 
A general repentance of national sins should follow, 
rather than precede, a personal and private conviction 
of our own individual transgressions. For it lias been 
found not difficult for men to repent of other people's 
sins ; but it is found somewhat difficult and onerous 



OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 68 

to repent of one's own sins. We are all of us guilty 
before God of pride, of selfislmess, of vanity, of pas- 
sions unsubdued, of worldliness in manifold forms, 
and of strife. We bave been caugbt in tlie stream, 
and swept out into an ocean of tbougbts and feelings 
whicb cannot bear tbe inquest of God's judgment- 
day. And we bave lived in tbem almost unrebuked. 
Each man will find his own life full of repentable 
.sins unrepented of. 

2. We should take solemn account of our guilt in 
the great growth of social laxity and vice and crime 
in our great cities. We have loved ease rather than 
duty. Every American citizen is by birth a sworn 
officer of state. Every man is a policeman. If bad 
men have had impunity, if the vile have controlled 
our municipal affairs, if by our delinquencies aiid 
indolence justice has been perverted, and our cities 
are full of great public wickedness, then we cannot 
put the guilt away from our own consciences. We 
have a partnership in the conduct of wicked men, 
unless we have exhausted proper and permissible 
means of forestalhng and preventing it. Every citi- 
zen of such a city as this, looking upon intemperance, 
upon lewdness, upon gambling, upon the monstrous 
wickednesses that ferment at the bottom of society, 
or beat in its arteries, should feel that he has some 
occasion to repent of his own delinquency and moral 
indifference. We are responsible for existing evils in 
such a nation as ours, in as far as they might have 
been prevented or limited by our resolute influence. 

3. We may not refuse to consider the growth of 
corrupt passions in connection with the increase of 
commercial prosperity. Luxury, extravagance, osten- 



64 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

fation, and corruption of morals in social life, have 
given alarming evidence of a premature old age in 
a young country. The sins of a nation are always 
the sins of certain central passions. In one age they 
break out in one way, and in another age in another 
way; but they are the same central sins, after ail. 
The corrupt passions which lead in the Southern 
States to all the gigantic evils of slavery, in Northern 
cities break out in other forms, not less guilty before 
God, because of a less public nature. The same thing 
that leads to the oppression of laborers among us leads 
to oppression on the plantation. The grinding of the 
poor, the advantages which capital takes of labor, the 
oppression of the farm, the oppression of the road, 
the oppression of the shop, the oppression of the ship, 
are all of the same central nature, and as guilty before 
God as the more systematic and overt oppressions of 
the plantation. It is always the old human heart 
that sins. North or South ; and the natures of pride 
and of dishonesty are universal. We have our own 
account to render. 

4. There is occasion for alarm and for humiliation 
before God, in the spread of avarice among our peo- 
ple. The intense eagerness to amass wealth ; the 
growing indifference of morals as to methods of ac- 
quisition ; the gradual corruption of the moral sense, 
so that property and self-interest dominate the con- 
science and determine what is right and wrong ; the 
use of money for bribery of electors and elected ; the 
terrible imputations which lie against many of our 
courts, that judges walk upon gold in securing place, 
and then sit upon gold in the judgment-seat ; the 
use of money in legislation ; and the growing rotten- 



OUR BLAMEWOETHINESS. 65 

ness of politics from the lowest village concern to 
matters of national dimension, from constables to the 
Chief Magistrate of these United States ; — is this all 
to be confessed only in a single smooth sentence ? 

Such is the wantonness and almost universality of 
avarice as a corrupting agent in public affairs, that it 
behooves every man to consider his responsibiUties 
before God in this matter. The very planks between 
us and the ocean are worm-eaten and rotting, when 
avarice takes hold of public integrity ; for avarice is 
that sea-worm, ocean-bred, and swarming innumera- 
ble, that will pierce the toughest planks, and bring 
the stoutest ships to foundering. Our foundations 
are crumbling. The sills on which we are building 
are ready to break. We need reformation in the 
very beginnings and elements of society. If in other 
parts of our land they are in danger of going down 
by avarice in one form, we are in danger of going 
down by avarice in another form. 

Our people are vain, and much given to boasting ; 
and because they love flatteries, those deriving from 
them honor and trust are too fond of feeding their 
appetite for praise. Thus it comes to pass that we 
hear the favorable side of our doings and character, 
and become used to a flattering portrait. Men grow 
popular who have flowing phrases of eulogy. Men 
who speak unpalatable truths are disliked ; and if 
they have power to make the public conscience un- 
comfortable, they are said to abuse the liberty of free 
speech, — for it is the liberty of fanning men to sleep 
that is supposed to be legitimate ; the liberty of 
waking men out of sleep is supposed to be license ! 
And yet we shall certainly die by the sweetness of 



6Q FEEEDOM AND WAK. 

flattery; and if we are healed, it must be by the 
bitterness of faithful speech. There is tonic in the 
tilings that men do not love to hear ; and there is 
damnation in the things that wicked men love to hear. 
Free speech is to a great people what winds are to 
malarial regions, which waft away the elements of 
disease, and bring new elements of health. Where 
free speech is stopped, miasma is bred, and death 
comes fast. 

5. But upon a day of national fasting and confes- 
sion, we are called to consider not alone our indi- 
vidual and social evils, but also those which are 
national. And justice requires that we should make 
mention of the sins of this nation on every side, past 
and present. I should violate my own convictions, if, 
in the presence of more nearly present and more ex- 
citing influences, I should neglect to mention the sins 
of this nation against the Indian, who, as much as the 
slave, is dumb, but who, unlike the slave, has almost 
none to think of him, and to speak of his wrongs. 
We must remember that we are the only historians 
of the wrongs of the Indian, — we that commit them. 
And our history of the Indian nations of this country 
is like the inquisitor's history of his own trials of 
innocent victims. He leaves out the rack, and the 
groans, and the anguish, and the unutterable wrongs, 
and puts but his own glozing view in his journal. 
We have heaped up the account of treachery and 
cruelty on their part, but we have not narrated the 
provocations, the grinding intrusions, and the misun- 
derstood interpretations of their policy, on our part. 
Every crime in the calendar of wrong which a strong 
people can commit against a weak one has been com- 



OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 67 

mitted by us against them. We have wasted their 
substance ; we have provoked their hostility, and then 
chastised them for their wars ; we have compelled 
them to peace ignominiously ; we have formed treaties 
with them only to be broken ; we have filched their 
possessions. In our presence they have wilted and 
wasted. A heathen people have experienced at the 
hands of a Christian nation almost every evil which 
one people can commit against another. 

Admit the laws of race ; admit the laws of advan- 
cing civilization as fatal to all barbarism ; admit the 
indocility of the savage ; admit the rude edges of vio- 
lent men who form the pioneer advance of a great 
people, and the intrinsic difficu.lties of managing a 
people whose notions and customs and laws are ut- 
terly different from our own, and then you have only 
explained how the evil has been done, but you have 
not changed the fact nor its guilt. The mischief has 
been done, and this is simply the excuse. It is a sorry 
commentary upon a Christian nation, and indeed 
upon religion itself, that the freest and most boast- 
fully religious people on the globe are absolutely fatal 
to any weaker people that they touch. What would 
be thought of a man who, when he became converted 
to Christianity, was dangerous to the next man's 
pocket? What would be thought of a man who 
grew dangerous in the ratio of his moral excellence ? 
And what must be the nature of that Christian- 
ization which makes this Republic a most dangerous 
neighbor to nations weaker than itself? We are 
respectful to strength, but thieves and robbers to 
weakness. It is not safe for any to trust our mag- 
nanimity and generosity. We have no chivalry. We 



68 FREEDOM AND WAPw 

have avarice ; we have haughty arrogance ; we have 
assumptive ways ; and we have a desperate determi- 
nation to hve, to think only of our own Uving, and to 
sweep with the besom of destruction whatever occu- 
pies the place where we would put our foot. 

Nor is this confined to the Indian. The Mexicans 
have felt the same rude foot. This nation has em- 
ployed its gigantic strength with almost no moral 
restriction. Our civilization has not begotten human- 
ity and respect for others' rights, nor a spirit of pro- 
tection to the weak. Nor can we excuse ourselves 
by declaring that these wanton cruelties have been 
inspired by Southern counsels, and perpetrated by 
Southern influence, and that they are the legitimate 
fruit of that unholy system of slavery which for fifty 
years has swayed the government of this nation. 
These facts are undoubtedly true. But we must not 
forget that we permitted the outrages. Resistance 
was feeble. Protests were mild. We preferred to 
suffer such wrongs upon the weak, rather than imperil 
our peace and commercial prosperity by a resolute 
resistance. 

It is quite in vain to say that the land from which 
we sprung did the same that we are doing. A wicked 
daughter is not excused because she had a wicked 
mother. We boast of the Anglo-Saxon race ; and if 
bone and muscle, an indomitable sense of personal 
liberty, and a disposition to do what we please, are 
themes for Christian rejoicing, then the Anglo-Saxon 
may well rejoice. There are sins that belong to races ; 
there are sins that belong to peoples ; there are sins 
that belong to generations of the same people ; and 
the sins that I have enumerated are sins that belong 
to our stock. 



OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 69 

But God never forgets what we most easily forget. 
Either moral government over nations is apocryphal, 
or judgments are yet to be visited upon us for the 
wrongs done to the Indian, and to our weak and 
helpless neighbors. 

6. But I am now come to the most alarming and 
most fertile cause of national sin, — slavery. "We are 
called by our Chief Magistrate to humble ourselves 
before God for our sins. This is not only a sin, but 
it is a fountain from which have flown so many sins 
that we cannot rightly improve this day without a 
consideration of them. 

In one and the same year, 1620, English ships 
landed the Puritans in New England and negro slaves 
in Virginia, — two seeds of the two systems that were 
destined to find here a growth and strength unpar- 
alleled in history. It would have seemed almost a 
theatric arrangement, had these oppugnant elements, 
Puritan liberty and Roman servitude, — (for, whatever 
men may say, American slavery is not Hebrew slavery : 
it is Roman slavery. We borrowed every single one 
of the elemental principles of our system of slavery 
from the Roman law, and not from the old Hebrew. 
The fundamental feature of the Hebrew system was 
tliat the slave was a man, and not a chattel, while the 
fundamental feature of the Roman system was that 
he was a chattel, and not a man. The essential prin- 
ciple of the old Mosaic servitude made it the duty of 
the master to treat his servants as men, and to instruct 
them in his own religion, and in the matters of his 
own household ; while the essential principle of Roman 
servitude allowed the master to treat his servants to 
all intents and purposes as chattels, goods), — it would 



70 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

have seemed, I say, almost a theatric arrangement had 
these oppugnant elements, Puritan liberty and Roman 
servitude, divided the land between them, and, inspir- 
ing diiferent governments, grown up different nations, 
in contrast, that the world might see this experiment 
fairly compared and worked out to the bitter end. 

But it was not to be so. The same government 
has nourished both elements. Our Constitution nour- 
ished twins. It carried Africa on its left bosom, and 
Anglo-Saxony on its right bosom ; and these two, 
drawing milk from the same bosom, have waxed 
strong, and stand to-day federated into the one repub- 
lic. One side of the body politic has grown fair and 
healthy and strong ; the other side has grown up as 
a wen grows, and a wart, vast, but the vaster the 
weaker. We have yielded new territory to this ter- 
rible disease. They have demanded, and we have 
permitted, concessions, legislative compromises, con- 
structions. Peace and friendship have been the 
ostensible pleas. The ambition of political parties 
and the short-sighted interests of commerce have 
been the real and active motives of this wicked 
consent ! 

We who dwell in the North are not without respon- 
sibility for this sin. Its wonderful growth and the 
arrogance of its claims have been in part through 
our delinquency. As our business to-day is not to find 
fault with the South, I am not discussing this matter 
with reference to them at all, but only with reference 
to our own individual profit. Because the South 
loved money, they augmented this evil ; and because 
the North loved money, and that quiet which befits 
industry and commerce, she has refused to insist upon 



OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 71 

her moral convictions, in days past, and yielded to 
every demand carrying slavery forward in this nation. 
You and I are guilty of the spread of slavery unless 
we have exerted, normally and legitimately, every 
influence in our power against it. If we have said, 
*' To agitate the question imperils manufacturing, im- 
perils shipping, imperils real estate, imperils quiet and 
peace," and if, then, we have sacrificed purity and 
honesty, — if we have bought the right to make money 
hereby letting slavery spread and grow there, — we 
have been doing just the same thing that they have. 
It has been one gigantic bargain, only working out in 
different ways. North and South. It is for us just as 
much as for them that the slave works; and we 
acquiesce. We clothe ourselves with the cotton which 
the slave tills. Is he scorched ?. is he lashed ? does 
he water the crop with his sweat and tears ? It is 
you and T that wear the shirt and consume the luxury. 
Our looms and our factories are largely built on the 
slave's bones. We live on his labor. I confess I see 
no way to escape a part of the responsibility for 
slavery. I feel guilty in part for this system. If 
the relinquishment of the articles which come from 
slave labor would tend even remotely to abridge or 
end the evil, I would without hesitation forego every 
one ; but I do not see that it would help the matter. 
I am an unwilling partner in the slave system. I take 
to myself a part of the sin ; I confess it before God ; 
and pray for some way to be opened by which I may 
be freed from that which I hate bitterly. 

But this state of facts makes it eminently proper 
for us to confess our sin, and the wrong done to 
the slave. All the wrongs, the crimes of some, the 



72 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

abuse of others, the neglect, the misuse, the ignor- 
ance, the separations, the scourgings, — these cannot 
be i:olled into a cloud to overhang the South alone. 
Every one of us has something to confess. Those 
who have been most scrupulous, if God should judge 
their life, their motives, and their conduct, would find 
that they, too, had some account in this great bill of 
slavery. The whole nation is guilty. There is not a 
lumberman on the verge of Maine, not a settler on 
the far distant northern prairies, not an emigrant on 
the Pacific shore, that is not politically and commer- 
cially in alliance with this great evil. If you put poi- 
son into your system in any way, there is not a nerve 
that is not affected by it ; there is not a muscle that 
does not feel it ; there is not a bone, nor a tissue, nor 
one single part nor parcel of your whole body, that can 
escape it. And our body politic is pervaded with this 
deadly injustice, and every one of us is more or less, 
directly or indirectly, willingly or unwillingly, impli- 
cated in it. We have a great deal to confess before 
we cast reproaches upon the South. And while I hold 
Southern citizens to the full and dreadful measure of 
their guilt before God, and would, if I were settled 
there, tell them their sin as plainly as I tell you your 
sin, it is for us to-day, and here, to consider our own 
part in this matter ; and to that I shall speak during 
the residue of my remarks. 

Originally, we were guilty of active participation in 
slavery. It seems very strange to take up the old 
Boston books and read the history of slavery in Bos- 
ton. We of the North early abandoned the practice 
of holding slaves. But it is said that ours is a cheap 
phil.anthropy ; that, having got quit of our slaves by 



OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 73 

selling them, we turn round and preach to the South 
about the sm of holdnm- theirs. There is nothinir 
more false than such a charo-e. There is nothing 
more illustrious in the history of the State of New 
York, and of the Northern States generally, than the 
method by which they freed themselves from slavery. 
This State decreed liberty at a certain period, making- 
it an offence, the penalty attached to which no one 
would willingly inherit, for a man to convey away, or 
in any manner whatsoever to sell put of the State, a 
person held as a slave ; and if a man, anticipating 
the day of emancipation, wished to make a journey 
to the South with his slaves, he had to give bonds 
for their return before he went away, and an ac- 
count when he came back, if they did not come 
with him. Nothing could have been more humane 
than the provision that the slave should not be sold 
out of the State of New York^ but should be emanci- 
pated in it. And what is true of New York in this 
respect, is true of the States generally that emanci- 
pated their slaves. 

But we of the North participated in the beginnings, 
and we are in part guilty of the subsequent spread of 
the system of slavery. When our government came 
into our hands, after the struggle of the Revolution, 
we had gone through such a schooling, that the head, 
the conscience, and the heart of this nation, in the 
main, were right on the subject of human liberties. 
And at the adoption of the Federal Constitution, near- 
ly seventy-five years ago, it might be said that, with 
local and insignificant exceptions, there was but one 
judgment, one wish, and one prophetic expectation ; 
namely, that this whole territory should be dedicated 



74 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

to liberty, and that every compliance or compromise 
was not to be made in the interest of oppression, but 
was to be made only to give oppression time to die 
decently. That was the spirit and intent of every 
concession or compromise that was made. 

The schools, the academies, the colleges, the intelli- 
gence, the brain of this nation, at that time, were in 
the North, — and in the North I include all the ter- 
ritory north of Mason and Dixon's line. Churches, 
religious institutious, those moral elements that al- 
ways went with the posterity of the Puritans, were 
then also in the North. When our Constitution was 
adopted, — when the wheels of our mighty Confederacy 
were adjusted, and the pendulum began to swing, — at 
that time the public sentiment was in favor of liberty. 
All the institutions were prepared for liberty, and all^ 
the public men were on the side of liberty. And to 
the North, because she was the brain, — to the North, 
because she was the moral centre and heart of this 
Confederacy, — was given this estate ; for in the first 
twenty-five or thirty years the North predominated 
in the councils of the nation, and fixed its institu- 
tions, as the South has fixed its policy since. What, 
then, having this trust put into her hands, is the 
account of her stewardship which the Nortli has to 
render ? If now, after three quarters of a century 
have passed away, God should summon the North to 
his judgment-bar, and say, " I gave you a continent 
in which, though there was slavery, it was perishing ; 
I gave you a nation in which the sentiment was for 
liberty and against oppression ; I gave you a nation 
in which the tendencies were all for freedom and 
against slavery ; I gave you the supreme intelligence ; 



OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 75 

I gave you the moral power in a tlioiisand pulpits, a 
thousand books, a thousand Bibles, and said, ' Take 
this nation, administer it, and render up your trust' "; 

— if now, after three quai-ters of a century have passed 
away, God should thus summon the North to his 
judgment-bar, what would be the account which she 
would have to render ? — the North, that was strong- 
est in the head and in the heart, and that took as 
fair a heritage as men ever attempted to administer ? 
To-day liberty is dishonored and discrowned, and slav- 
ery is rampant, in this nation. And do you thnik to 
creep out of the responsibility and say, " We are not 
to blame " ? What have you been doing with your 
intelligence, your books, your schools, your Bibles, 
your missionaries, your ministers ? Where, where is 
the artillery that God Almighty gave you, park upon 
park, for iise in this contest, provided and prepared 
for that special emergency ? Much as I love the 
North, — and I love every drop of Puritan blood 
that the world ever saw, because it seems to me 
that Puritan blood means blood touched with Christ's 
blood, — I take to myself part of the shame, and 
mourn over the delinquency of the North, that, hav- 
ing committed to it the eminent task of preservhig 
the liberties of this nation, it has suffered them to 
be eclipsed. For to-day there are more Slave States 
than there were States confederated when this na- 
tion came together. And instead of having three 
or four hundred thousand slaves, we have more than 
four millions; instead of a traffic suppressed, you 
and I are witnesses to-day of a traffic to be reopened, 

— of rebelHon, treasonable war, bloodshed, separate 
independence, for the sake of reopening the African 



76 FEEEDOM AND WAR. 

slave-trade. So came this country into the hands of 
the North in the beginning, and so it is going out of 
her liands in the end. There never was such a stew- 
ards! lip ; and if this Confederacy shall be broken up, 
if the Gulf States shall demand a division of the coun- 
try, and the intermediate States shall go off, and two 
empires shall be established, no steward that has lived 
since God's sun shone on the earth will have such an 
account to render of an estate taken under such favor- 
able auspices, as the North will have to render of this 
great national estate which was committed to her 
trust. It is an astounding sin ! It is an unparalleled 
guilt ! The vengeance and zeal of our hearts toward 
the South might be somewhat tempered by the reflec- 
tion that we have been so faithless and so wicked. 

That is not the worst. That is the material side. 
We have stood with all the elements of power, boast- 
ing of our influence, and really swaying, in many 
respects, the affairs of this continent ; and yet we have 
not only seen this tremendous increase of slavery, but 
we have permitted the doctrines of liberty themselves 
to be stricken with leprosy. And to-day, to-day, to- 
day, if you were to put it to the vote of this whole 
people, I do not know that you could get a majority 
for any doctrine of liberty but this : that each man has 
a right to be himself free. The great doctrine of lib- 
erty is concisely expressed by the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence ; and it is this : that all men are free, born 
with equal political rights, of hfe, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness. And there is no true right that 
is not founded ^on this doctrine: That liberty which 
is good for me is indispensable for everybody. A 
right love of liberty inspires a man to say, '' I will 



OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 77 

have it, and everybody shall have it." That is a poor 
love of liberty that makes a man a champion for the 
liberty of those that are capable of asserting their 
own liberty. But I doubt whether you could get a 
popular vote for the liberty of all men, if the Africans 
were known to be included. Why should you ? I 
am ashamed of what I must speak. The pulpit has 
been so prostituted, and so utterly apostatized from 
the very root and substance of Christianity, that it 
teaches the most heathen notions of liberty ; and why 
should you expect the great masses of men to be 
better informed on this subject than its preachers are ? 
Do you believe that George Washington, were he 
living, would now be able to live one day in the city 
of Charleston, if he uttered the sentiments that he 
used to hold ? He would be denounced as a traitor, 
and swung up on the nearest lamp-post. Do you 
suppose that one single man that signed the Declara- 
tion of Independence, if living, could go through the 
South to-day repeating the sentiments contained in 
that document ? The lives of the signers of the Dec- 
laration of Independence would not be worth one 
day's lease in Alabama, Louisiana, Carolina, or Flori- 
da, if they were there to say the things plainly whicli 
they said when they framed this government, so 
utterly have the South vomited up their political 
views ; so radically have they changed their notions. 
Was this coujitry committed to our care ? and is such 
the lesson that we have taught our pupils ? Shall the 
schoolmaster render back the scholars that he under- 
took to teach, with their minds debauched, and say 
that he was not responsible for what they learned? 
And if any part of the country was responsible for 



78 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

the education of the whole, it was the free-schooled, 
milhon-churched North. The result of our instruc- 
tion is this : slavery has spread gigantically, and the 
doctrine of liberty is so corrupted, that to-day noth 
ing is more disreputable in the high places of this 
nation than that very doctrine. And at last, when 
the sleeper, long snoring, having been awaked, raised 
himself up, and, like all new zealots, somewhat intern- 
perately made crusade for liberty, the land was so 
agitated, and with such surprise was this expression 
of the public sentiment of the North received, that the 
Chief Magistrate of this nation has declared that the 
advocates of the old colonial, original, constitutional 
doctrines of human rights were the cause of all the 
trouble ! 

But this is not all. The most serious, the most 
grievous charge, is yet to be made upon the North. 
So far have we been delinquent in the trust that God 
committed to us, that from the very fountain out of 
which flowed, as from the heart of Christ, the first drops 
that were to cleanse men from oppressions, has been 
extracted in our day, and in our North very largely, 
the whole spirit of humanity which breathes freedom. 

It ill becomes, I think, one' profession to rail against 
another, or the members of the same profession to 
rail against each other. I have no accusations to 
make against any ; but I will forsake my profession, 
for the time being, and stand as a man among men, to 
lift up my voice, with all my heart and soul, against 
any man who, professing to be ordained to preach, 
preaches out of Christ's Gospel the doctrines of 
human bondage. If the Bible can be opened that all 
the fiends of hell may, as in a covered passage, walk 



OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 79 

tlirougli it to do mischief on earth, I say, blessed be 
infidels! If men can make the Bible teach me to 
disown childhood ; if men can make the Bible teach 
me that it is lawful to buy and sell men, that marriage 
is impracticable between slaves, that laws cannot per- 
mit any custom which would hinder the easy sale of 
such property ; if the Bible can be made the sacred 
document and constitutional guaranty of a system 
which makes it impossible that a man should receive 
education, because intelligence is costly, and swells 
the slave to a stature not convenient for selfish econ- 
omy ; if a man can take the Bible and lay it in the 
path over which men are attempting to walk from 
Calvary up to the gate of heaven ; — then I declare 
that I will do by the Bible what Christ did by the 
temple : I will take a whip of cords, and drive out of 
it every man that buys and sells men, women, and 
children ; and if I cannot do that, I will let the Bible 
go, as God let the temple go, to the desolating armies 
of its adversaries. And I do not wonder that, after 
so long an experience of the world, men who bom- 
bard universal humanity, men who plead for the out- 
rage of slavery, men who grope to find under crowns 
and sceptres the infamous doctrines of servitude, — I 
do not wonder that they are pestered with the idea of 
man's infidelity. Why, that minister who preaches 
slavery out of the Bible is the father of infidelity ! 
Sometimes men become infidel to the Church for the 
sake of fidelity to religion. The Bible may be so 
interpreted by a besotted priesthood, that plain men 
may be driven from the Book for their very faith in its 
essential contents. Every abomination on earth has 
been at one time or another justified from the Bible ! 



80 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

Thus men learn to hate the Bible, not for what it is 
in reality, but because it is made the bulwark of op- 
pression ; and they spurn it that they may answer the 
call of God in their own nature, — for to be free is 
a part of the sovereign call and election that God 
has given to every man who has a sense of his birth- 
right and immortality. And in a community where 
the minister finds reason in the Bible for slavery, you 
may depend upon it that one of two things will take 
place : either there will be an inquisition to redeem 
the Bible from such abominable prostitution, or else 
the Bible will be spurned and trodden under the 
feet of men. 

" I came to open the prison to them that are 
bound," said Christ; and that is the text on which 
men justify shutting them and locking them. " To 
proclaim liberty to the captives " ; and that is the 
text out of which men spin cords to bind men, 
women, and children. " To set at liberty them that 
are bruised " ; and that is the Book from out of 
which they argue, with amazing ingenuity, all the 
infernal meshes and snares by which to keep men in 
bondage. It is pitiful. 

Now what has been the lustory of the Book but 
this : that wherever you have had an untrammelled 
Bible, you have had an untrammelled people ; and 
that wherever you have had a Bible shut up, you 
have had a shut-up people ? Where you have had 
a Bible that the priests interpreted, you have had a 
king. Where you have had a Bible that the common 
people interpreted ; where the family has been the 
church ; where father and mother have been God's 
ordained priests ; where they have read its pages 



OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. .81 

freely from beginning to end witliout gloss or com- 
mentary, without the church to tell them how, but 
with the illumination of God's Spirit in their hearts ; — 
there you have had an indomitable yeomanry, a state 
that would not have a tyrant on the throne, a govern- 
ment that would not have a slave or a serf in the 
field. Wherever the Bible has been allowed to be 
free, wherever it has been knocked out of the king's 
hand, and out of the priest's hand, it has carried light 
like the morning sun, rising over hill and vale, round 
and round the world ; and it will do it again ! And 
yet there come up in our midst men that say that the 
Bible is in favor of slavery. And as men that are 
about to make a desperate jump go back and run 
before they jump, so these men have to go back to the 
twilight of creation and take a long run ; and when 
they come to their jump, their strength is spent, and 
they but stumble ! 

It is in consideration of this wanton change which 
has taken place (and which ought never to have been 
permitted to take place, in view of the instruments 
that God put into our hands, and in view of the solemn 
responsibility that he has put upon us), — it is in con- 
sideration of this change which has taken place in the 
moral condition of the country, and in the opinions 
of this people respecting the great doctrine of liberty, 
and the worse change which has in part corrupted the 
Church at its very core, that I argue to-day the neces- 
sity of humiliation and repentance before God. 

I shall first confess my own sin. Sometimes men 
think I have been unduly actirve. I think I have been 
indolent. In regard to my duty in my personal and 
professional life, I chide myself for nothing more than 

4* P 



82 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

because I have not been more alert, more instant in 
season and out of season. If sometimes in intemper- 
ate earnestness I have wounded the feelings of any, 
if I have seemed to judge men harshly, for that I am 
sorry. But for holding the slave as my brother ; for 
feeling that the Spirit of God is the spirit of liberty ; 
for loving my country so well that I cannot bear to 
see a stain or a blot upon her ; for endeavoring to take 
the sands from the river of life wherewith to scour 
white as snow the morals of my times, and to cleanse 
them to the uttermost of all spot and aspersion, — for 
that I have no tears to shed. I only mourn that I 
have not been more active and zealous, and I do not 
wish to separate myself from my share of the respon- 
sibility. I am willing to take my part of the yoke 
and burden. I will weep my tears before God, and 
pray my prayers of sincere contrition and penitence, 
that I have not been more faithful to liberty and 
religion in the North and the whole land. 

But be sure of one thing : He that would not come 
when the sisters sent, but tarried, has come, and the 
stone is rolled away, and he stands by the side of the 
sepulchre. He has called, *' Liberty, come forth ! " 
and, bound yet hand and foot, it Iras come forth ; and 
that same sovereign voice is saying, " Loose him, and 
let him go ! " and from out of the tomb, the dust, the 
night, and the degradation, the better spirit of this 
people is now emerging at the voice of God. We 
liave heard his call, we know the bidding, and Death 
itself cannot hold us any longer; and there is before 
us, we may fain believe, a new lease of life, a more 
blessed national existence. That there will not be 
concussions, and perhaps garments rolled in blood, I 



OUR BLAMEWORTHINESS. 83 

will not undertake to say : there may be some such 
thmgs as these ; but, brethren, this nation is not going 
to perish. This Union is not going to be broken and 
shivered like a crystal vase that can never be put 
together again. We are to be tested and tried ; but 
if we are in earnest, and if we stand, as martyrs and 
confessors before us have stood, bearing witness in 
tliis thing for Christ, know ye that erelong God will 
appear, and be the leader and captain of our salvation, 
and we shall have given back to us this whole land, 
healed, restored to its right mind, and sitting at the 
feet of Jesus. 

Love God, love men, love your dear fatherland ; 
to-day confess your sins toward God, toward men, 
toward your own fatherland ; and may that God that 
loves to forgive and forget, hear our cries and our 
petitions which we make, pardon the past, inspire the 
future, and bring the latter-day glory through a re- 
generated zeal and truth, inspired by his Spirit, in 
this nation. Amen, and amen. 



lY 



THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY* 

"And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak 
unto the children of Israel, that they go forward," — Exod. xiv. 15. 




OSES was raised up to be the emancipator 
of three millions of people. At the age of 
forty, having, through a singular providence, 
been reared in the midst of luxury, in the 
proudest, most intelligent, and most civilized court on 
the globe, with a heart uncorrupt, with a genuine 
love of his own race and people, he began to act as 
their emancipator. He boldly slew one of their op- 
pressors. And, seeing dissension among his brethren, 
he sought to bring them to peace. He was rejected, 
reproved, and reproached ; and finding himself dis- 
covered, he fled, and, for the sake of liberty, became 
a fugitive and a martyr. For forty years, uncom- 
plaining, he dwelt apart with his father-in-law, Jethro, 
in the wilderness, in the peaceful pursuits of a herds- 
man. At eighty — the time when most men lay 
down the burden of life, or have long laid it down — 
he began his life-work. He was called back by tlie 
voice of God ; and now, accompanied with compan- 

* Preached April 14, 1861, during the siege of Fort Sumter. 



THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 85 

ions, lie returned, confronted the king, and, moved by- 
Divine inspiration, demanded, repeatedly, the release 
of his people. The first demand was sanctioned by a 
terrific plague ; the second, by a second terrible judg- 
ment ; the third, by a third frightful devastation ; the 
fourth, by a fourth dreadful blow ; the fifth, by a fifth 
desolating, sweeping mischief. A sixth, a seventh, an 
eighth, and a ninth time, he demanded their release. 
And when was there ever, on the face of the earth, a 
man that, once having power, would let it go till life 
itself went with it ? Pharaoh, who is the grand type 
of oppressors, held on in spite of the Divine command 
and of the Divine punishment. Then God let fly 
the last terrific judgment, and smote the first-born 
of Egypt ; and there was wailing in every house of 
the midnight land. And then, in the midst of the 
first gush of grief and anguish, the tyrant said, " Let 
them go ! let them go ! " And he did let them go ; 
he shoved them out ; and they went pell-mell in great 
confusion on their way, taking up their line of march, 
and escaped from Egypt. But as soon as the first effects 
of the grief and anguish had passed away, Pharaoh 
came back to his old nature, — just as many men 
whose hearts are softened, and whose lives are made 
better by affliction, come back to the old way of feel- 
ing and living, as soon as they have ceased to experi- 
ence the first effects of the affliction, — and he followed 
on after the people. As they lay encamped — these 
three millions of people, men, women, and children — 
just apart from the land of bondage, near the fork 
and head of the Red Sea, with great hills on either 
side of them, and the sea before them, some one 
brought panic into the camp, saying, " I see the signs 



86 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

of an advancing host ! The air far on the horizon is 
filled with rising clouds ! " Presently, throvigh these 
clouds, began to be seen glancing spears, mounted 
horsemen, and a great swelling army. Such, to these 
lately enslaved, but just emancipated people, was the 
first token of the coming adversary. Surely, they 
were unable to cope with the disciplined cohorts of 
this Egyptian king. They, that were unused to war, 
that had never been allowed to hold weapons in their 
hands, that were a poor, despoiled people not only, 
but that had been subjected to the blighting touch of 
slavery, had lost courage. They did not dare to be 
free. And there is no wonder, therefore, that they 
reproached Moses, and said, " Because there were no 
graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in 
the wilderness ? " 

I have no doubt that, if Pharaoh's courtiers had 
heard that, they would have said, " Ah ! they do not 
want to be free. They do not believe in freedom." 

" Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken 
us away to die in the wilderness ? Wherefore hast thou 
dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt ? " 

Were these people miserable specimens of human- 
ity ? They were just what slavery makes everybody 
to be. 

" Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, say- 
ing, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians ? " 

They would rather have had peace with servitude, 
than liberty with the manly daring required to ob- 
tain it. 

"For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, 
than that we should die in the wilderness." 



THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 87 

That is just the difference between a man and a 
slave. They would rather have lived slaves, and 
eaten their pottage, than to suffer for the sake of 
liberty ; a man would rather die in his tracks, than 
live in ease as a slave. 

These, then, were the people that Moses undertook 
to emancipate, and this was the beginning of Moses's 
life-work. 

" And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand 
still — " 

That was wrong, but he did not know any better. 

" Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the 
Lord, which he will show you to-day: for the Egyptians, 
whom ye have seen to-day, ye shall see them again no 
more forever. The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall 
hold your peace." 

He was a little too fast. He was right in respect 
to the result, but wrong in respect to the means. 

''And the Lord said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou 
unto me ? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go 
forward." 

They were, after all, to do something and dare 
something for their liberty. No standing still, but 
going forward ! 

" Lift up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the 
sea, and divide it; and the children of Israel shall go on 
dry ground through the midst of the sea." 

You recollect the rest. They walked through the 
sea that stood up as a wall on either side for them. 
They reached the other side. They were divided 
from the camp of the Egyptians by a fiery cloud, 
and the Egyptians could not touch them. And what 



00 FREEDOM AND WAPw 

was the fate of the Egyptians ? They attempted to fol- 
low the children of Israel through the sea, when the 
waters closed together, and their host was destroyed. 

God has raised up many men, at different periods 
of the world, to bring his cause forth from its various 
exigencies. Wherever a man is called to defend a 
truth or a principle, a church or a people, a nation 
or an age, he may be said to be, like Moses, the 
leader of God's people. And in every period of 
the world God has shut up his people, at one time 
or another, to himself. He has brought their ene- 
mies behind them, as he brought the Egyptians 
behind the children of Israel. He has hedged them 
in on either hand. He has spread out the unford- 
able sea before them. He has so beset them with 
difficulties, when they were attempting to live for 
right, for duty, and for liberty, that they have been 
like Israel. 

When men stand for a moral principle, their trou- 
bles are not a presumption that they are in the wrong. 
Since the world began, men that have stood for the 
right have had to stand for it, as Christ stood for the 
world, suffering for victory. 

In the history which belongs peculiarly to us, over 
and over again the same thing has occurred. In 
that grand beginning struggle in which Luther fig- 
ured so prominently, he stood in a doubtful conflict. 
He was in the minority ; he was vehemently pressed 
with enemies on every side ; nine times out of ten 
during his whole life the odds were against him. 
And yet he died victorious, and we reap the fruit 
of his victory. 

In one of the consequences of that noble struggle, 



THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 89 

the assertion in the Netherlands of civil liberty and 
religious toleration, the same thing took place. Al- 
most the entire globe was against this amphibious 
republic, until England cared for them ; and England 
cared for them but very doubtfully and very imper- 
fectly. All the reigning influences, all the noblest 
of the commanding men of the Conthient, were against 
them. The conflict was a long and dubious one, in 
which they suffered extremely, and conquered through 
their suflering. 

In the resulting struggle in England, which was 
borrowed largely from the Continent, — the Puritan 
uprising, the Puritan struggle, — the same thing oc- 
curred. The Puritans were enveloped in darkness. 
Their enemies were more than their friends. The 
issue was exceedingly doubtful. Their very victory 
began in apparent defeat. For when at last, wearied 
and discouraged, they could no longer abide the re- 
striction of their liberty in England, they fled away 
to plant colonies upon these shores. On the sea did 
they venture, but the ocean, black and wild, before 
tliey left it was covered with winter. 

In every one of these instances darkness and the 
flood lay before the champions of truth and rectitude. 
God in his providence said to them, though they were 
without apparent instrumentalities, " Go forward ! 
N^enture everything ! Endure everything ! Yield 
the precious truths never ! Live forever by them ! 
Die with them^ if you die at all." 

The whole lesson of the past, then, is that safety 
and honor come by holding fast to one's principles ; 
by pressing them with courage ; by going into dark- 
ness and defeat cheerfully for them. 



90 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

And now our turn has come. Right before us lies 
t^e Red Sea of war. It is red indeed. There is 
blood in it. We have come to the very edge of it, 
and the Word of God to us to-day is, " Speak unto 
this people that they go forward ! " It is not of our 
procuring. It is not of our wishing. It is not our 
hand that has stricken the first stroke, nor drawn the 
first blood. We have prayed against it. We have 
struggled against it. Ten thousand times we have 
said, " Let this cup pass from us." It has been over- 
ruled. We have yielded everything but manhood, 
and principle, and truth, and honor, and we have 
heard the voice of God saying, " Yield these never ! " 
And these not being yielded, war has been let loose 
upon this land. 

Now, let us look both ways into this matter, that 
we may decide what it is our duty to do. 

1. There is no fact susceptible of proof in history, 
if it be not true that this Federal Government was 
created for the purposes of justice and liberty ; and 
not liberty, either, with the construction that traitor- 
ous or befooled heads are attempting to give it, — lib- 
erty with a devil in it ! We know very well what was 
the breadth and the clarity of the faith of those men 
who formed the early constitutions of this nation. If 
there was any peculiarity in their faith, it was that 
their notion of liberty was often extravagant. But 
there was no doubtfulness in their position. And the 
instruments which accompanied and preceded it, and 
the opinions of the men that framed it, put this fact 
beyond all controversy : that the Constitution of the 
United States was meant to be as we now hold it, as 
we now defend it, as we have held it, and as we have 



THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 91 

been defending it. And at length even this is con- 
ceded, as 1 shall have occasion to say further on, by 
the enemies of liberty in this country. The Vice- 
President of the so-called Southern Confederacy has 
stated recently that there was a blunder made in the 
construction of our Constitution on this very truth 
of universal liberty, thus admitting the grand fact 
that that imtoortal instrument, as held by the North, 
embodies the views of those who framed it ; and that 
those views are unmistakably in favor of liberty to 
all. 

2. There can be no disputing the fact that, from 
commercial and political causes, an element of slav- 
ery which had a temporary refuge in the beginning 
in this land swelled to an unforeseen and unexpected 
power, and for fifty years has held the administrative 
power of the country in its hands. No man ac- 
quainted with our politics hesitates to say, that while 
the spirit of liberty first suggested our national 
ideas and fashioned our national institutions, after 
that work was done the government passed into the 
hands of the slave-power ; and that that power has 
administered these institutions during the last fifty 
years for its own purposes, or in a manner that has 
been antagonistic to the interests of this country. 

3, Against this growing usurpation for the last 
twenty-five years there has been rising up and or- 
ganizing a proper legal constitutional opposition, wish- 
ing not the circumscription or injury of any section 
in this land, but endeavoring to keep our institutions 
out of tl>e hands of despotism and on the side of lib- 
erty. For twenty-five years there has been a strug- 
gle to see to it that those immortal instruments of 



92. FREEDOM AND WAR. 

liberty should not be wrested from their original 
intent, — that they should be maintained for the 
objects for which they were created. 

4. What are the means that have been employed 
to maintain our institutions? Free discussion. That 
simply. We have gone before the people in every 
proper form. For twenty years of defeat, though of 
growing influence, we have argued the 'questions of 
human rights and human liberty, and the doctrines 
of the Constitution and of our fathers ; and we have 
maintained that the children should stand where the 
fathers did. At last the continent has consented. 
We began as a handful, in the midst of mobs and 
derision and obloquy. We have gone through the 
experience of Gethsemane and Calvary. The cause 
of Christ among his poor has suffered as the Master 
suffered, again and again and again ; and at last the 
public sentiment of the North has been revolutionized. 
What ! revolutionized away from the doctrines of the 
fathers ? No ; back to the doctrines of the fathers. 
Revolutionized against our institutions ? No ; in favor 
of our institutions. We have taken simply the old 
American principles. That is the history very sim- 
ply stated. The children have gone back to the old 
landmarks. We stand for the doctrines and instru* 
ments that the fathers gave us. 

5. The vast majority of this nation are now on the 
side of our American institutions, according to their 
original intent. We ask only this : that our govern- 
ment may be what it was made to be, — an instrument 
of justice and liberty. We ask no advantages, no new 
prerogatives, no privileges whatsoever. We merely 
say, "• Let there be no intestine revolution in our 



THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 93 

institutions, and let them stand as they were made, 
and for the purposes for which they were created." 
Is there anything unreasonable, anything wrong in 
that ? Is it wrong to reason ? Is it wrong to discuss ? 
Is it wrong to go before a free people with their own 
business, and, in the field, in the caucus, in the 
assembly, in all deliberative bodies, to argue fairly, 
and express the result by the American means, — the 
omnipotence of the vote ? Is that wrong ? It is 
what we have been doing for the last few years. 
By the prescribed methods of the Constitution, and 
in the spirit of liberty which it embodied and evoked, 
we have done our proper work. Before God we 
cleanse our hands of all imputation of designing 
injustice or of seeking wrong. We have not sought 
any one's damage. We have aimed at no invid- 
ious restrictions for any. We have simply said, 
" God, through our fathers, committed to us certain 
institutions, and we will maintain them to the end 
of our lives, and to the end of time." 

6. Seven States, however, in a manner revolutionary 
not only of government, but in violation of the rights 
and customs of their own people, have disowned their 
country and made war upon it ! There has been a 
spirit of patriotism in the North ; but never, within 
my memory, in the South. I never heard a man from 
the South speak of himself as an American. Men 
from the South always speak of themselves as South- 
erners. When I was abroad, I never spoke of myself 
as a Northerner, but always as a citizen of the United 
States. I love our country ; and it is a love of the 
country, and not a love of the North alone, that per- 
vades the people of the North. There has never been 



94 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

witnessed such patience, such self-denial, such mag- 
nanimity, such true patriotism, under such circum- 
stances, as that which has been manifested in the 
North. And in the South the feeling has been sec- 
tional, local. The people there have been proud, not 
that they belong to the nation, but that they were born 
where the sun burns. They are hot, narrow, and 
boastful, — for out of China there is not so much 
conceit as exists among them. They have been devoid 
of that large spirit which takes in the race, and the 
nation, and its institutions, and its history, and that 
which its history prophesies, — the prerogative of car- 
rying the banner of liberty to the Pacific from the 
Atlantic. 

Now, these States, in a spirit entirely in agreement 
with their past developments, have revolutionized and 
disowned the United States of America, and set up a 
so-called government of their own. Shall we, now, 
go forward under these circumstances ? 

For the first time in the history of this nation there 
is a deliberate and extensive preparation for war, and 
this country has received the deadly thrust of bullet 
and bayonet from the hands of her own children. If 
we could have prevented it, this should not have taken 
place. But it is a fact ! It hath happened ! The 
question is no longer a question of choice. The war 
is brought to us. Shall we retreat, or shall we accept 
the hard conditions on which we are to maintain the 
grounds of our fathers ? Hearing the voice of God 
in his providence saying, " Go forward ! " shall we go ? 

I go with those that go furthest in describing the 
wretchedness and wickedness and monstrosity of war. 
The only point on which I should probably differ 



THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 95 

from any is tins : that while war is an evil so 
presented to our senses that we measure and esti- 
mate it, there are other evils just as great, and 
much more terrible, whose deadly mischiefs have 
no power upon the senses. I hold that it is ten 
thousand times better to have war than to have 
slavery. I hold that to be corrupted silently by 
giving up manhood, by degenerating, by becoming 
cravens, by yielding one right after another, is in- 
finitely worse than war. Why, war is resurrection in 
comparison with the state to which we should be 
brought by such a course. And although war is a 
terrible evil, there are other evils that are more ter- 
rible. In our own peculiar case, though I would say 
nothing to garnish it, nothing to palliate it, nothing to 
alleviate it, nothing to make you more willing to have 
it, nothing to remove the just abhorrence which every 
man and patriot should have for it, yet I would say 
that, in the particular condition into which we have 
been brought, it will not be an unmixed evil. Eighty 
years of unexampled prosperity have gone far toward 
making us a people that judge of moral questions by 
their relation to our convenience and ease. We are 
in great danger of becoming a people that shall 
measure by earthly rules, — by the lowest standard 
of a commercial expediency. We have never suffered 
for our own principles. And now if it please God to 
do that which daily we pray that he may avert, — if 
it please God to wrap this nation in war, — one result 
will follow : we shall be called to suffer for our faith. 
We. shall be called to the heroism of doing and daring, 
and bearing and suffering, for the things which we 
believe to be vital to the salvation of this people. 



96 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

On what conditions, then, may wc retreat from this 
war, and on what conditions may we have peace ? 

1. We may do it on condition that two thirds of 
this nation shall implicitly yield up to the dictation 
of one third. You can have peace on that ground. 
Italy could have had peace at the hands of Francis II. 
They had nothing to do but to say to that tyrant, 
" Here is my neck, put your foot on it," to obtain 
peace. The people of Hungary may have peace, if 
they will only say to him of Vienna, " Reign over us 
as you please ; our lives are in your hands." There 
is never any trouble in having peace, if men will yield 
themselves to the control of those that have no busi- 
ness to control them. Two thirds of this nation un- 
questionably stand on the side of the original articles 
of our Constitution, and in the service of liberty, and 
one third deny and reject them. Now if the two 
thirds will give up to the one third, we can have peace 

■ — a little while. 

2. We can have peace if we will legalize and estab- 
lish the right of any discontented community to rebel, 
and to set up intestine governments within the gov- 
ernment of the United States. Yield that principle, 
demoralize government, and you can have peace — 
for a little while. You cannot yield that principle 
and not demoralize government. And if it is right 
for seven States on the Gulf to secede, it is the right 
of seven States on the Lakes. If it is the riglit of 
seven States on the Lakes, it is the right of five or 
three States on the Ohio River. If it is the right of a 
number of States, it is the right of one State. And 
if it is the right of any State, there is not a State, a 
half of a State, a county, or a town, that has not the 



THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 97 

same right. It is the riglit of disintegration. It is 
a right that aims at the destruction of the attrac- 
tion of governmental cohesion. It is a right that in- 
validates all power in government. And if you will 
grant this right ; if you will consent to have this 
government broken up ; if you are willing that our 
country should degenerate to the condition of wran- 
gling and rival States, — you can have peace — for a 
little while. 

3. We can have peace if we will agree fundamen- 
tally to change our Constitution, and, instead of 
maintaining a charter of universal freedom, to write 
it out as a deliberate charter of oppression. 

Mr. Stephens, the Vice-President of the so-called 
Confederate States, declared, in a formal speech, that 
our Constitution was framed on a fundamental mis- 
take, inasmuch as it took it for granted that men 
were born for freedom and equality. They have ex- 
punged the doctrine of universal liberty, and put in 
its place the doctrine of liberty to the strong and 
servitude to the weak. It is said that the African 
race, by reason of their nationality and savagism, 
are not fit for liberty, and that the white race, by 
reason of their nationality and civilization, are fit to 
govern them. It is merely a plea that weak persons 
are not fit to take care of themselves, and that strong 
persons are fit to take care of them ; and it is a plea 
tliat is just as applicable to any other peoples as to 
the Anglo-Saxons and the Africans. It is simply a 
doctrine that might makes right. It may be stated 
in this form : " You are weak and I am strong, and 
I am therefore your lawful master." If it is good 
for the Africans and the Anglo-Saxons, it is good for 



98 FREEDOM AND WAPw 

all other races. And if it is good in reference to 
races, it is good in reference to individuals. There- 
fore there is not a workman, there is not a poor man, 
there is not a man that is low in station, at the North, 
who is not interested in this matter, who is not 
touched in his rights, and who is not insulted by the 
spirit that is latent in the new Constitution of the 
so-called Confederate States. It holds that there is 
appointed of God a governing class and a class to be 
governed, — a class that are born governors because 
they are strong and smart and well-to-do, and a class 
that are born servants because they are poor and 
weak and unable to take care of themselves. Now 
take that glorious, flaming sentence in the Declaration 
of Independence, which asserts the right of every 
man to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and 
which pronounces that right to be alike inalienable to 
all, — take that and strike it out, and put in its place 
this infernal article of the new Constitution of the 
Southern States, and you can have peace — for a 
little while. There is no trouble about having peace. 
What an unreasonable people we are ! If we will only 
pay enough for peace we can have it. 

This diabolical principle is also deliberately held 
and advocated by the churches of the South. Tlie 
Southern churches are all sound on the question of 
the Bible, and infidel on the question of its contents ! 
They believe that this is God's Book ; they believe 
that this Book is the world's charter ; and they believe 
that it teaches the religion of servitude. Every ser- 
mon that I have received within the last year from 
the South has been a various echo of this one atrocious 
idea, held in common with all the despotic preach- 



THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 99 

crs of Europe. Any man tliat has read old South's 
sermons, has read over and over again all the argu- 
ments contained in the raw, jejune productions of 
Southern clerical advocates for oppression. In all 
the discussions between Milton and Salmasius, and in 
all the writings of Roman priests that have sought to 
bolster up sacerdotal rule, these arguments have been 
put forth far more ably than our unscholarly South- 
erners have put them forth. But this is the ground 
which has been taken by the Christian Church of the 
South : that in Christ Jesus all men are not created 
equal, — that white masters are, but that black ser- 
vants are not ! 

And that is not all. Not only is this new govern- 
ment framed on this ground, and not only have all 
the churches of the South taken this ground, so that 
it may be said of the Southern Confederacy as it was 
said of one of the old revolted tribes, " They have a 
priest to their house," but there has just now been 
raised up in the North a club of the same kind, — 
a society for the promotion of national unity, on 
the basis of a change of our national instruments 
of government. This society proposes to restore 
peace to this country. And how ? Exactly as you 
restore uniformity of color in a room where some 
things are red, some blue, and some yellow, — by 
blowing the light out so that in darkness all things 
will be of the same color ! We are very much divided 
in this land, one part believing in liberty, and the 
other believing in servitude ; and it is proposed to 
bring these two parts together in unity, by destroying 
the distinction between them. What is this society's 
own statement, as contained in the letter which they 



100 FEEEDOM AND WAE. 

liavG put forth with their articles ? They make this 
formal assertion: that that portion of our original 
Declaration of Independence which makes all men 
free and equal has been misinterpreted, or is false. 
They endeavor to say it softly, but it is a thing that 
cannot be said softly. To breathe it, to whisper it, 
makes it louder than thunder ! 

Indeed, it is true that men are not physiologically 
equal. No man ever believed that they were. They 
do not weigh alike. They differ in respect to bone 
and tissue. They are not the same as regards mental 
calibre. Their dynamic forces are different. They 
are not capable of exerting the same amount of politi- 
cal influence. In the nations of Europe it was held 
that the royal hesid, jure Divino, had privileges which 
the nobles had not ; that there belonged to the nobles 
prerogatives which did not belong to the commonalty ; 
and that the political rights of the great common peo- 
ple were to be graduated accordhig to their status in 
society. But our fathers said, God gives the same 
political rights to all alike. The people are king, and 
the people are nobles. They are equal in this : that 
they all stand before the same law of justice, and that 
justice is to be the same to one as to another. The 
richest and the poorest, the wisest and the most 
ignorant, the highest and the lowest, are on an 
equality before the law. The Declaration of Inde- 
pendence taught simply, that every man born into 
life was born with such dignities, with such a nature 
conferred upon him, that, as a child of God, he has 
a right to confront government and legislature and 
laws, and say, " I demand, in common with every 
other man, equal justice, equal protection, to life. 



THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 101 

liberty, and in the pursuit of happiness." And this 
is what our society in the North for the promotion of 
national unity undertake, in their first article, to say 
is a lie ! 

Now, you can have your American eagle as you 
want it. If, with the South, you will strike out his 
eyes, then you shall stand well with Mr. Davis and 
Mr. Stephens of the Confederate States ; if, with the 
Christians of the South, you will pluck off his wings, 
you shall stand well with the Southern churches ; and 
if, with the new peace-makers that have risen up in 
the North, you will pull out his tail-feathers, you shall 
stand well with the society for the promotion of na- 
tional unity ! But when you have stricken out his 
eyes so that he can no longer see, when you have 
plucked . off his wings so that he can no longer fly, 
and when you have pulled out his guiding tail-feath- 
ers so that he can no longer steer himself, but rolls in 
the dirt a mere buzzard, then will he be worth pre- 
serving ? Such an eagle it is that they mean to depict 
upon the banner of America ! 

Now if any man is fierce for peace, and is willing 
to pay the price demanded for it, he can have it. On 
those conditions you can have peace as long as the 
Jews did. For three guilty days they were rid of the 
Saviour, and then he rose from the grave, with eternal 
power on his head, and beyond all touch of weakness 
or death, then ascended on high to the Source of 
eternal power, there to live, and to live forever ! 

4. "We must accordingly, if we go on to purchase 
peace on these terms, become partners in slavery, and 
consent, for the sake of peace, to ratify this gigantic 
evil. We cannot wink at it. We are called to bear 



102 "FREEDOM AND WAR. 

overt witness either for or against it. Every State in 
this Union, according to the new Constitution, must 
be open to slavery. It is the design of not a few men 
at the North to make this the issue at the next elec- 
tion : whether we shall not reconstruct this govern- 
ment according to the Constitution of the Confederate 
States, one feature of which is that slavery shall have 
liberty to go wherever it pleases, — that slavery shall 
have the right of incursion to any part of this coun- 
try. If you consent to such a ^reconstruction as is 
proposed, you must open every one of your States 
to the incoming of slavery. Not only that, but every 
territory on this continent is to be opened to slavery. 
We are called to take the executive lancet, and the 
virus of slavery, and lift up the arm of this virgin 
continent and inoculate it with this terrific poison. 
If you will do these things, you are to be permitted 
to escape war. 

5. Next in order must of course be silence. When 
we have gone so far, we shall no longer have any right 
of discussion, of debate, of criticism, — we shall no 
longer have any right of agitation^ as it is called. 

On these conditions we may have peace. If we 
reject these conditions we are to have separation, de- 
moralization of government, and war. 

Now are you prepared to take peace on these con- 
ditions ? You will not get it on any other conditions. 
If you have peace, you are to stigmatize the whole 
history of the past ; you are to yield your religious 
convictions; you are to give over the government 
into the hands of factious revolutionists ; you are to 
suppress every manly sentiment, and every sympathy 
for the oppressed. Will you take peace on such a 



niE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 103 

ground as that ? So far as I myself am concerned, I 
utterly abhor peace on any such grounds. Give mo 
war redder than blood, and fiercer than fire, if this 
terrific infliction is necessary that I may maintain my 
faith of God in human liberty, my faith of the fathers 
in the instruments of liberty, my faith in this land as 
the appointed abode and chosen refuge of liberty for 
all the earth ! War is terrible, but that abyss of igno- 
miny is yet more terrible 1 

What, then, if we will go forward in the providence 
of God, and maintain our integrity, are the steps that 
are before us ? 

1. Instead of yielding our convictions, it is time to 
cleanse them, to deepen them, to give them more 
power, to make them more earnest and more religious. 
There is no reason, now, why we should compromise. 
There is nothing to be gained by compromising. And 
it is time that parents should talk on the great doc- 
trine of human rights in the family, and indoctrinate 
their children with an abhorrence for slavery, and a 
love for liberty. It is time for schools to have their 
scholars instructed in these matters. It is time for 
every church to make its pews flame and glow with 
enthusiasm for freedom, and with hatred for oppres- 
sion. While the air of the South is full of pestilent 
doctrines of slavery, accursed be our communities if 
we will not be as zealous and enthusiastic for liberty 
as they are against it ! If their air is filled with the 
storm and madness of oppression, let ours be full of 
the sweet peace and love of liberty ! 

2. We must draw the lines. A great many men 
have been on both sides. A great many men have 
been thrown backward and forward, like a shuttle, 



104 FREEDOM AND WAE. 

from one side to the other. It is now time for every 
man to choose one side or the other. We want no 
shufflers ; we want no craven cowards ; we want men ; 
we want every man to stand forth, and say, " I am 
for liberty, and the Constitution, and the country, as 
our fathers gave them to us," or else, " I am against 
them." 

Thousands, thank God, of great men have spoken 
to us ; but I think that the war-voice of Sumter has 
done more to bring men together, and to produce 
unity of feeling among them on this subject, than 
the most eloquent-tongued orator. 

We must say in this matter, my friends, as Clirist 
said, " He that is not for us is against us." I will 
have no commerce, I will not cross palms with a man 
that disowns liberty in such a struggle as is before us ! 
I will not give him shelter or house-room — except 
as a convicted sinner ; then I will take him, as the 
prodigal was taken, in his rags and nakedness ! But 
so long as he stands up with impudent face against 
the things that are dearest to God's heart, and dearest 
to the instincts of tins people, I shall treat him as 
what he is, — a traitor ! There ought to be but one 
feeling in the North, and that ought to be a feeling 
for liberty, which should sweep through the land like 
a mighty wind. 

3. We must not stop to measure costs, — especially 
the costs of going forward, — on any basis so mean 
and narrow as that of pecuniary prosperity. We must 
put our honor and religion into this struggle. God 
is helping you ; for, no matter how much you deplore 
the state of things, you cannot help yourselves. You 
may take counsel with your Till and Safe and Bank, 



THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 105 

you may look at your accounts on both sides, but your 
talking and looking will make no difference with your 
affairs. The time is past in which these things could 
be of any avail. This matter must now be settled. 
You must have a part in settling it. The ques- 
tion is whether that shall be a manly or an ignoble 
part ! 

There are many reasons which make a good and 
thorough battle necessary. The Southern men are 
infatuated. They will not have peace. They are in 
arms. They have fired upon the American flag ! 
That glorious banner has been borne through every 
climate, all over the globe, and for fifty years not a 
land or people has been found to scorn it, or dishonor 
it. At home, among the degenerate people of our own 
land, among Southern citizens, for the first time, has 
this glorious national flag been abased, and trampled 
to the ground ! It is for our sons reverently to lift it, 
and to bear it full high again, to victory and national 
supremacy ! Our arms, in this peculiar exigency, can 
lay the foundation of future union, in mutual respect. 
The South firmly believes that eoivardice is the uni- 
versal attribute of Northern men 1 Until they are 
most thoroughly convinced to the contrary, they will 
never cease arrogancy and aggression. But if now 
it please God to crown our arms with victory, we 
shall have gone far toward impressing Southern men 
with salutary respect. Good soldiers, brave men, 
hard fighting, will do more toward quiet than all tlie 
compromises and empty, wagging tongues in the 
world. Our reluctance to break peace, our unwill- 
ingness to shed blood, our patience, have all been 
misinterpreted. The more we have been generous 

5* 



106 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

and forbearing, the more thoroughly were they sure 
that it was because we dared not fight ! 

With the North is the strength, the population, the 
courage. There is not elsewhere on this continent 
that breadth of courage — the courage of a man in 
distinction from the courage of a brute beast — which 
there is in the free States of the North. It was Gen- 
eral Scott who said that the New-Englanders were the 
hardest to get into a fight, and the most terrible to 
meet in a conflict, of any men on the globe. 

We have no braggart courage ; we have no cour- 
age that rushes into an affray for the love of fight- 
ing. We have that courage which comes from calm 
intelligence. We have that courage which comes 
from broad moral sentiment. We have no anger, 
but we have indignation. We have no irritable pas- 
sion, but we have fixed will. We regard war and 
contest as terrible evils ; but when, detesting them 
as we do, we are roused to enter into them, our 
courage will be of the measure of our detestation. 
You may be sure that the cause which can stir up 
the feelings of the North sufficiently to bring them 
into such a conflict, will develop in them a courage 
that will be terrific to the men who have to meet it. 
I could wish no worse punishment to those that decry 
the courage of the North, than that they shall have to 
meet her when she is once brought out and fairly in 
the field. 

4. We must^ aim at a peace built on foundations 
so solid, of God's immutable truth, that nothing can 
reach to unsettle it. Let this conflict between hberty 
and slavery never come up again. Better have it 
thoroughly settled, though it take a score of years 



THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 107 

to settle it, than to have an intermittent fever for 
the next century, breaking out at every five or ten 
years. It is bad, you say. That has nothing to 
do with the point. Your house is on fire, and the 
question is. What will you do ? You are in the 
struggle, and the question is. Will you go through 
it in the spirit of your ancestors, in the spirit of 
Christians and patriots, in the spirit that belongs to 
the age of the world in which you live, and settle it 
so that it shall not be in the power of mischief to un- 
settle it ? Or will you dally ? Will you delay ? I 
know which you will do. This question is now going 
forward to a settlement. 

5. Let not our feelings be vengeful nor savage. 
We can go into this conflict with a spirit just as truly 
Christian as any that ever inspired us in the perform- 
ance of a Christian duty. Indignation is very differ- 
ent from anger. Conscience is very different from 
revenge. The spirit of fury, — let it be far from us ; 
but a spirit of earnestness, of willingness to do, to 
suffer, and to die, if need be, for our land and our 
principles, — that may be a religious spirit. We may 
consecrate it with prayer. 

All through the struggle of the Revolution, men 
there wer^ that preached on the Sabbath, and 
when not preaching went from tent to tent and 
performed kind offices to those that were sick or 
wounded, cheered those that were in despondency, 
encouraged those whose trials werfe severe, and led 
or accompanied their brethren to those conflicts 
which achieved liberty. 

I believe that the old spirit will be found yet in 
the Church ; and that in that patriotism which dares 



108 FKEEDOM AND WAR. 

to do as well as teach, laymen and officers and 
pastors will be found no whit behind, in our day, 
what they were in the Revolutionary day. 

Let me say two things more. 

It is trying to live in suspense, to be in the tor- 
menting whirl of rumor, now to see the banner up, 
and now to see it trailing in the dust. Early yester- 
day things seemed inauspicious. Toward evening 
all appeared calm and fair. To-day disastrous and 
depressing rumors w^ere current. This evening I 
came hither sad from the tidings that that stronghold 
which seemed to guard the precious name and lasting 
fame of the noble and gallant Anderson had been 
given up ; but since I came into this desk I have 
received a despatch from one of our most illustrious 
citizens, saying that Sumter is reinforced, and tliat 
Moultrie is the fort that has been destroyed. [^Tre- 
mendous and ijrolonged applause^ expressed hy enthu- 
siastic cheers^ clapping of Jiafids, and waving of hand- 
hereliiefs.'] But what if the rising sun to-morrow 
should reverse the message ? What if tlie tidings 
that greet you in the morning should be but the echo 
of the old tidings of disaster ? You live in hours in 
which you are to suffer suspense. Now lifted up, you 
will be prematurely cheering, and now cast down, you 
will be prematurely desponding. Look forward, then, 
past the individual steps, the various vicissitudes of 
experience, to the glorious end that is coming ! Look 
beyond the present to that assured victory which 
awaits us in the future. 

Young men, you will live to see more auspicious 
days. Later sent, delayed in your voyage into life, 
you will see the bright consummation, in part at least, 



THE BATTLE SET IN ARRAY. 109 

of that victory of this land, by which, with mortal 
throes, it shall cast out from itself all morbific iuflu- 
ences, and cleanse itself from slavery. And you that 
are in middle life shall see the ultimate triumph 
advancing beyond anything that you have yet known. 
The sceptre shall not depart. The government shall 
not be shaken from its foundations. 

Let no man, then, in this time of peril, fail to asso- 
ciate himself with that cause which is to be so entirely 
glorious. Let not your children, as they carry you to 
your burial, be ashamed to write upon your tombstone 
the truth of your history. Let every man that lives 
and owns himself an American, take the side of true 
American principles ; — liberty for one, and liberty for 
all ; liberty now, and liberty fifrever ; liberty as the 
foundation of government, and liberty as the basis 
of union ; liberty as against revolution, liberty, against 
anarchy, and liberty, against slavery ; liberty here, and 
liberty everywhere, the world through ! 

When the trumpet of God has sounded, and that 
grand procession is forming ; as Italy has risen, and is 
wheeling into the ranks ; as Hungary, though mute, 
is beginning to beat time, and make ready for the 
march ; as Poland, having long slept, has dreamt of 
liberty again, and is waking ; as the thirty million 
serfs are hearing the roll of the drum, and are going 
forward toward citizenship, — let it not be your mis- 
erable fate, nor mine, to live in a nation that shall 
be seen reeling and staggering and wallowing in the 
orgies of despotism ! We, too, have a right to march 
in this grand procession of Hberty. By the memory 
of the fathers ; by the sufferings of tlie Puritan an- 
cestry ; by the teaching of our national history ; by 



no 



FREEDOM AND WAR. 



our faith and hope of rehgion ; by every line of the 
Declaration of Independence, and every article of our 
Constitution ; by what we are and what our progeni- 
tors were, — we have a right to walk foremost in this 
procession of nations toward the bright millennial 
future ! 



THE NATIONAL FLAG * 




" Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be dis- 
played because of the truth." — Psalms Ix. 4. 

ROM the earliest periods nations seem to 
have gone forth to war under some banner. 
Sometimes it has been merely the pennon 
of a leader, and was only a rallying signal. 
So, doubtless, the habit began of carrying banners, to 
direct men in the confusion of conflict, that the leader 
might gather his followers around him when he him- 
self was liable to be lost out of their sight. 

Later in the history of nations the banner acquired 
other uses and peculiar significance from the parties, 
the orders, the houses, or governments, that adopted 
it. At length, as consolidated governments drank up 
into themselves all these lesser independent authori- 
ties, banners became significant chiefly of national 
authority. And thus in our day every people has its 
peculiar flag. There is no civilized nation without its 
banner. 

A thoughtful mind, when it sees a nation's flag, 

* Delivered to two companies of the " Brooklyn Fourteenth," many of 
them members of Plymouth Church. The Church on that day contrib- 
uted $ 3,000 to aid in the equipment of this Regiment. 



112 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

sees not the flag, but the nation itself. And whatever 
may be its symbols, its insignia, he reads chiefly in the 
flag, the government, the principles, the truths, the 
history that belong to the nation that sets it forth. 
When the French tricolor rolls out to the wind, we 
see France. When the new-found Italian flag is un- 
furled, we see resurrected Italy. When the other 
three-colored Hungarian flag shall be lifted to the 
wind, we shall see in it the long buried, but never 
dead, principles of Hungarian liberty. When the 
united crosses of St. Andrew and St. George, on a 
fiery ground, set forth the banner of Old England, we 
see not the cloth merely : there rises up before the 
mind the idea of that great monarchy. 

This nation has a banner, too ; and until recently 
wherever it streamed abroad men saw day-break 
bursting on their eyes. For until lately the American 
flag has been a symbol of Liberty, and men rejoiced 
in it. Not another flag on the globe had such an 
errand, or went forth upon the sea carrying every- 
where, the world around, such hope to the captive, and 
such glorious tidings. The stars upon it were to the 
pining nations like the bright morning stars of God, 
and the stripes upon it were beams of morning light. 
As at early dawn the stars shine forth even while it 
grows light, and then as the sun advances that light 
breaks into banks and streaming lines of color, the 
glowing red and intense white striving together, and 
ribbing the horizon with bars effulgent, so, on the 
American flag, stars and beams of many-colored light 
shine out together. And wherever this flag comes, 
and men behold it, they see in its sacred emblazonry 
no ramping lion, and no fierce eagle ; no embattled 



THE NATIONAL FLAG. 113 

castles, or insignia of imperial authority: they see 
the symbols of light. It is the banner of Dawn. It 
means Liberty; and the galley-slave, the poor, op- 
pressed conscript, tlie trodden-down creature of foreign 
despotism, sees in the American flag that very promise 
and prediction of God, — " The people which sat in 
darkness saw a great light ; and to them which sat in 
the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." 

Is this a mere fancy ? On the 4th of July, 1776, 
the Declaration of American Independence was con- 
firmed and promulgated. Already for more than a 
year the Colonies had been at war with the mother 
country. But until this time there had been no 
American flag. The flag of the mother country 
covered us as during all our colonial period; and 
each State that chose had a separate and significant 
State banner. 

In 1777, within a few days of one year after the 
Declaration of Independence, and two years and more 
after the war began, upon the 14th of June, the 
Congress of the Colonies, or the Confederated States, 
assembled, and ordained this glorious National Flag 
which now we hold and defend, and advanced it full 
high before God and all men, as the Flag of Liberty. 
It was no holiday flag, gorgeously emblazoned for 
gayety or vanity. It was a solemn national signal. 
When that banner first unrolled to the sun, it was the 
symbol of all those holy truths and purposes which 
brought together^ the Colonial American Congress ! 

Consider the men who devised and set forth this 
banner. The Rutledges, the Pinckneys, the Jays, 
the Franklins, the Hamiltons, the Jeflersons, the 
Adamses, — these men were all either ofiicially con- 



114 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

nected with it, or consulted concerning it. They were 
men that had taken their lives in their hands, and 
consecrated all their worldly possessions — for what ? 
For the doctrines, and for the personal fact, of liberty, 
— for the right of all men to liberty. They had just 
given forth to the world a Declaration of Facts and 
Faiths out of which sprung the Constitution, and on 
which they now planted this new-devised flag of our 
Union. 

If one, then, asks me the meaning of our flag, I say 
to him, It means just what Concord and Lexington 
meant, what Bunker Hill meant ; it means the whole 
glorious Revolutionary War, which was, in short, the 
rising up of a valiant young people against an old 
tyranny, to establish the most momentous doctrine 
that the world had ever known, or has since known, — 
the right of men to their own selves and to their 
liberties. 

In solemn conclave our fathers had issued to the 
world that glorious manifesto, the Declaration of 
Independence. A little later, that the fundamental 
principles of liberty might have the best organization, 
they gave to this land our imperishable Constitution. 
Our flag means, then, all that our fathers meant in 
the Revolutionary War ; it means all that the Decla- 
ration of Independence meant ; it means all that the 
Constitution of our people, organizing for justice, for 
liberty, and for happiness, meant. Our flag carries 
American ideas, American history and American feel- 
ings. Beginning with the Colonies, and coming down 
to our time, in its sacred heraldry, in its glorious 
insignia, it has gathered and stored chiefly this su- 
preme idea: Divine right of liberty in man. Every 



THE NATIONAL FLAG. 115 

color means liberty ; every thread means liberty ; 
every form of star and beam or stripe of light means 
liberty: not lawlessness, not license; but organized, 
institutional liberty, — liberty through law, and laws 
for liberty! 

This American flag was the safeguard of liberty. 
Not an atom of crown was allowed to go into its 
insignia. Not a symbol of authority in the ruler was 
permitted to go into it. It was an ordinance of hb- 
erty by the people for the people. That it meant, 
that it means, and, by the blessing of God, that it 
shall mean to the end of time ! 

For God Almighty be thanked ! that, when base and 
degenerate Southern men desired to set up a nefarious 
oppression, at war with every legend and every instinct 
of old American history, they could not do it under 
our bright flag ! Its stars smote them with light like 
arrows shot from the bow of God. They must have 
another flag for such work; and they forged an in- 
famous flag to do an infamous work, and, God be 
blessed ! left our bright and starry banner untainted 
and untouched by disfigurement and disgrace! I 
thank them that they took another flag to do the 
Devil's work, and left our flag to do the work of 
God! [Applause.] So may it ever be, that men 
that would forge oppression shall be obliged to do 
it under some other banner than the Stars and the 
Stripes. 

If ever the sentiment of our text, then, was ful- 
filled, it has been in our glorious American banner : 

" Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee.^' 

Our fathers were God-fearing men. Into their 
hands God committed this banner, and they have 



116 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

liaiidod it down to lis. And I thank God that it 
is still in the hands of men that fear him and love 
righteousness. 

" Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, 
that it may be display ecV^ 

And displayed it shall be. Advanced full against 
the morning light, and borne with the growing and 
the glowing day, it shall take the last ruddy beams 
of the night, and from the Atlantic wave, clear across 
with eagle flight to the Pacific, that banner shall float, 
meaning all the liberty which it has ever meant ! 
From the North, where snows and mountain ice stand 
solitary, clear to the glowing tropics and the Gulf, 
that banner that has hitherto waved shall wave and 
wave forever, — every star, every band, every thread 
and fold significant of Liberty ! [Great applause.] 

[ The speaker paused to check the too demonstrative 
enthusiasm of the audience^ and continued ;] I do not 
doubt your patriotism. I know it is hard for men 
that are full of feeling not to give expression to it ; 
yet excuse me if I request you to refrain from demon- 
strations of applause while I am speakmg. It is 
not because I think Sunday too good a day, nor the 
church too holy a place for patriotic Christian men 
to express their feelings at such a time as this, and 
in behalf of such sentiments, but because by too 
frequent repetition applause becomes stale and com- 
mon, that I make this request. Besides, outward 
expression is not our way. We are rather of a silent 
stock. We let our feelings work inwardly, so that 
they may have deeper channels and fuller floods. 

" Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, 
that it may be displayed because of the truthJ^ 



THE NATIONAL FLAG. 117 

Because of that very truth we will dis})lay it ! Not 
in mere national pride, not in any wantonness of 
vanity, not merely because we have been reared to 
honor it, not because we have an hereditary reverence 
for it, but with a full intelligence of what it is and 
what it means, and because we love the truth that 
is written in lines of living light all over it, we will 
advance it and maintain it against all comers from 
earth and hell. 

The history of this banner is all on the side of 
rational liberty. Under it rode Washington and 
his armies, — Washington, much beloved and much 
abused by those that are his eulogists, who have 
described all that he was except his love of liberty, 
which has been forgotten. But Washington would 
be like a man without a heart, if you left out of 
him that high, almost imperial chivalric love of 
liberty for every human being. Under this banner 
rode he and his armies. Before it Burgoyne laid 
down his arms. It waved on the highlands at West 
Point. It floated over old Fort Montgomery, as 
over another Montgomery * it shall float ! When 
Arnold would have suiTcndered these valuable for- 
tresses and precious legacies, his night was turned 
into day, and his treachery was driven away, by the 
beams of light from this starry banner. It cheered 
our army, driven out from around New York, and in 
their painful pilgrimages through New Jersey. Sacred 
State of New Jersey ! small, but comely and rich and 
imperishable in the drops of precious blood that have 
redeemed her sainted soil from barrenness. In New 

* At that time Montgomery, Alabama, was the capital of the Southern 
Confederacy, afterwards removed to Richmond, Virginia. 



118 FREEDOM AND WAR 

Jersey more than in almost every other State grows 
the tr ailing-arbutus. Me thinks it is sacred drops of 
Pilgrim blood that come forth in beauteous flowers on 
this sandiest of soils, for this sweet blossom that lays 
its cheek on the very snow is the true Pilgrim's May- 
floiuer ! This banner streamed in light over the sol- 
diers' heads at Yalley Forge and at Morristown. It 
crossed the waters rolling with ice at Trenton, and 
when its stars gleamed in the cold morning with vic- 
tory, a new day of hope dawned on the despondency 
of this nation. When South Carolina, in the Revolu- 
tionary struggle, utterly forgot what she never well 
remembered, courage and personal liberty, and yield- 
ed herself, — the only one, ignominious and infamous, 
of all the Revolutionary band of States, that gave in 
an adhesion again to the British government, — when 
she forgot courage and personal liberty, and yielded 
herself up, and made her peace, solitary and alone, 
with British generals, then it was this banner that 
led on the Virginia forces who conquered both the 
British and Carolinian armies, and brought the State 
again into our confederacy. Alas that the head should 
become the tail ! Alas that old Virginia, that brought 
back the recreant South Carolina, should be tied to, 
and be dragged about the rebel camp at the tail of 
that same South Carolina ! 

And when at length the long years of war were 
drawing to a close, underneath the folds of this im- 
mortal banner sat Washington, while Yorktown sur- 
rendered its hosts, and our Revolutionary struggle 
ended with victory. 

It waved thus over that whole historic period of 
struggle, and over that period in which sat that im- 



THE NATIONAL FLAG. 119 

mortal Convention that framed our Constitution. It 
cheered the hardy pioneers that then began to go 
forth and explore the "Western wilds, in all their des- 
perate strifes with savage Indians. It waa to them a 
memorial and symbol of comfort. Our States grew 
up under it. And when our ships began to swarm 
upon the ocean, to carry forth our commerce, and, 
inspired by the genial flame of liberty, to carry forth 
our ideas, and Great Britain arrogantly demanded the 
right to intrude her search-warrants upon American 
decks, then up went the lightning flag, and every star 
meant liberty, and every stripe streamed defiance. 

The gallant fleet of Lake Erie, — have you forgotten 
it ? The thunders that echoed to either shore were 
overshadowed by this broad ensign of our American 
liberty. Those glorious men that went forth in the old 
ship Constitution carried this banner to battle and to 
victory. The old ship is alive yet. The new traitors 
of the South could not burn her, they did not sink 
her ; and she has been hauled out of the reach of hos- 
tile hands and traitorous bands. Bless the name, 
bless the ship, bless her historic memory, and bless 
the old flag that waves over her yet ! 

The Perrys, the Lawrences, the Biddies, the Mc- 
Donoughs, the Porters, and a host of others whose 
names cannot die, — do you forget that they fought 
under this national banner, and fought for liberty ? 

How glorious, then, has been its origin ! How 
glorious has been its history! How divine is its 
meaning ! In all the world is there another banner 
that carries such hope, such grandeur of spirit, such 
soul-inspiring truth, as our dear old American flag ? 
made by liberty, made for liberty, nourished in its 



120 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

spirit, carried in its service, and never, not once in 
all the earth, made to stoop to despotism ! Never, — 
did I say ? Alas ! Only to that worst despotism, 
Southern slavery, has it bowed. Remember, every 
one of you, that the slaveholders of the South, alone 
of all the world, have put their feet upon the American 
flag! 

And now this banner has been put on trial! It 
has been condemned. For what? Has it failed of 
duty ? Has liberty lost color by it ? Have moths of 
oppression eaten its folds ? Has it refused to shine 
on freemen and given its light to despots ? No. It 
has been true, brave, loyal. It has become too much 
a banner of liberty for men who mean and plot des- 
potism. Remember, citizen ! remember, Christian 
soldier ! the American flag has been fired upon by 
Americans, and trodden down because it stood in the 
way of slavery ! This is all that you have reaped for 
your long patience, for your many compromises, for 
your generous trust and your Christian forbearance ! 
You may now see through all the South just what 
kind of patriotism slavery breeds ! East of the moun- 
tains, I suppose you might travel through all Wash- 
ington's State and not see one star nor one stripe. 
Thank God, Washington is dead, and has not lived to 
see the infamy and the disgrace that have fallen upon 
that recreant State ! In all North Carolina I fear you 
shall find not one American flag. In Florida you shall 
not find one. In Georgia, I know not, except in the 
mountain fastnesses, if there be one. With a like 
exception, there is not one in Alabama. Neither is 
there one in repudiating Mississippi, nor in Louisiana, 
nor in Texas, ungrateful, nor in Arkansas. In all 



THE NATIONAL FLAG. 121 

this waste and wilderness of States this banner has 
gone down, and a miserable counterfeit, a poor for- 
gery, has been run up upon the recreant pole, to stand 
in the stead of the glorious old Revolutionary, historic 
American flag ! And how is it in the great middle 
brood of States ? As.a star is obscured for an instant 
by a passing cloud, and then shines forth again, so in 
Maryland the flag and its stars were hid for a day, 
but they now flame out again. Maryland is safe. 
All honor to Delaware ; she has never flinched. In 
Kentucky and Tennessee and Missouri the banner is 
at half-mast, uncertain whether it will go up or down. 
And of all these States I can say, with all my heart 
and soul, in the language of the Apocalypse : " I would 
thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art 
lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew thee 
out of my mouth." God hates lukewarm patriotism, 
as much as lukewarm religion ; and we hate it too. 
"We do not believe in hermaphrodite patriots. We 
want men to be men from the crown of their head to 
the sole of their foot, and to say no to oppression, and 
yes to liberty, and to say both as if thunder spoke ! 
But this is not the worst, — that this banner should 
have been lowered by the hands of recreants. It was 
upon these streaming bars and vipon these bright stars 
that every one of that immense concentric range of 
guns was aimed, when Sumter was lifted up in the 
midst, almost like another witnessing Calvary; and 
that flag which Russia could not daunt, nor France 
intimidate, nor England conquer, has gone down be- 
neath the fire of treacherous States within our own 
Union ! And do you know that when it was fallen, 
in the streets of a Southern city, it was trailed, hooted 



122 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

at, pierced with swords? Men that have sat in the 
Senate of the United States ran out to trample upon 
it ; it was fired on and slashed by the mob ; it was 
dragged through the mud ; it was hissed at and spit 
upon ; and so it was carried through Southern cities ! 
That our flag, which has found^on the ocean, in the 
Indian Islands, in Sumatra, in Japan, in China, and 
in all the world, no enemies, either barbarian or civ- 
ilized, that dared to touch it with foul aspersion, — 
that this flag should, in our own nation, and by our 
own people, be spit upon, and trampled under foot, is 
more than the heart of man can bear ! 

And what is its crime ? If it had forgotten its 
origin, if it had gone over to oppression, if it had 
set these stars like so many blazing jewels in the 
tiara of imperial despotism, I should not have won- 
dered at its going down. If it had been recreant to 
its trust of ideas of liberty, I should have expected to 
see it go down. But it has not failed to defend liber- 
ty. Have there been quartered on its armorial bear- 
ings any bastard symbols significant of oppression ? 
None. It is guilty of nothing but of too much liberty. 
Its stars have too much promise in them for those that 
are born slaves ; and its stripes stream too bright a 
light to those that sit in darkness. That is the crime 
of our national banner. 

And now God speaks by the voice of his providence, 
saying, ^' Lift again that banner ! Advance it full 
and high ! " To your hand, and to yours, God and 
your country commit that imperishable trust. You 
go forth self-called, or rather called by the trust of 
your countrymen and by the Spirit of your God, to 
take that trailing banner out of the dust and out 



THE NATIONAL FLAG. 123 

of the mire, and lift it again where God's rains can 
cleanse it, and where God's free air can cause it to 
unfold and stream as it has always floated before the 
wind. God bless the men that go forth to save from 
disgrace the American flag ! 

Accept it, then, in all its fulness of meaning. It 
is not a painted rag. It is a whole national history. 
It is the Constitution. It is the government. It is 
the free people that stand in the government on the 
Constitution. Forget not what it means ; and for the 
sake of its ideas, rather than its mere emblazonry, be 
true to your country's flag. By your hands lift it ; 
but let your lifting it be no holiday display. It must 
be advanced " because of the truths 

That flag must go to the capital of this nation ; and 
it must go not hidden, not secreted, not in a case or 
covering, but advanced full high, displayed, bright as 
the sun, clear as the moon, terrible as an army with 
banners ! For a single week that disgraceful crook,* 
that shameful circuit, may be needful ; but the way 
from New England, the way fi^om New York, the way 
from New Jersey and Pennsylvania to Washington, 
lies right through Baltimore; and that is the way 
the flag must and shall go ! \_Enthusiastic cheers.'] 
But that flag, borne by ten thousand and thrice ten 
thousand hands, from Connecticut, from Massachu- 
setts, (God bless the State and all her men !) from 
shipbuilding Maine, from old Granite New Hamp- 
shire, from the Vermont of Bennington and Green- 
Mountain-Boy patriotism, from Rhode Island, not 
behind any in zeal and patriotism, from New York, 

* The route thi-ough Baltimore was closed, and for weeks Washington 
was reached through Annapolis. • 



124 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

ffom 01«o, from Pennsylvania and New Jersey and 
Delaware, and the other loyal States, — that flag 
must be carried, bearing every one of its insignia, 
to the sound of the drum and the fife, into our 
national capital, until Washington shall seem to be 
a forest, iii which every tree supports the American 
banner ! 

And it must not stop there. The country does not 
belong to us from the Lakes only to Washington, but 
from the Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico. The flag must 
go on. The land of Washington shall see Washing- 
ton's flag again. The land that sits in darkness, and 
in which the people see no •light, shall yet see light 
dawn, and liberty flash from the old American banner ! 
It must see Charleston again, and float again over 
every fort in Charleston harbor. It must go further, 
to the Alligator State, and stand there again. And, 
sweeping up through all plantations, and over all 
fields of sugar and rice and tobacco, and every other 
thing, it must be found in every State till you touch 
the Mississippi. And, bathing in its waters, it must 
go across and fill Texas with its sacred light. Nor 
must it stop when it floats over every one of the 
States. That flag must stand, bearing its whole his- 
toric spirit and original meaning, in every Territory 
of this nation ! 

Have you not had enough mischief of slavery ? Do 
you not see what men it breeds ? It hatches cocka- 
trice's eggs. Slavery breeds traitors in the masters 
and miserable slaves in the subjects. Slavery is the 
abominable poison that has circulated in the body 
politic, and corrupted this whole nation almost past 
healing. Blessed be God there is a medicine found. 



THE NATIONAL FLAG. 125 

Now, having had experience, and having seen what 
slavery does to the slave (and what it does to the 
slave is the least part of the evil. The slave is to he 
envied in the comparison. I would to God that the 
white man were half as little hurt by slavery) ; seeing 
how it blights the heart's core ; how it corrupts the 
most sacred sentiments ; how it brings down natures 
born for better things to the degradation of despotism, 
— having seen these things, can you, — I ask every 
man that has conscience, or reason, or hope, or fear, 
or love in his soul, — can you meet God Almighty's 
judgment, or the inquiring eye of God, if while you 
live you permit that evil to roll unchecked three thou- 
sand miles to the Pacific Ocean? Let, then, this ban- 
ner go again into every recreant State, and float over 
every inch of territory, saying, " Defiance to slavery ; 
all hail to liberty ! " 

Nor is it enough that that banner shall stand and 
merely reassert its authority. It is time now that 
that banner shall do as much for each man in our own 
country as it will in every other land on the globe. 
If I go to Constantinople, and a mob threatens me, 
that banner shines like lightning out of heaven, and I 
am safe. If I go to Jerusalem, or among the Bedouin 
Arabs, I have but to show that symbol, and I am safe. 
If I go to Africa, and skirt its coasts among the 
natives, and exhibit the colors of my country, I am 
safe. I can go around the globe under the protection 
of this flag. But it is denied me to go to Washington. 
I cannot go from my door to the capital of this nation, 
because the American flag' does not defend Americans 
on their oivn soil. I cannot go to Virginia, nor North 
Carolina, nor South Carolina, nor Florida, nor Georgia, 



126 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

nor Alabama, nor Mississippi, nor Louisiana, nor 
Texas, nor Arkansas, nor to most of Kentucky and of 
Tennessee. We have not had a government for fifty 
years that dared to do a thing that slavery did not 
wish to have done. I suppose that within the last 
twenty years uncounted multitudes of men have been 
mulcted in property, mobbed, hung, murdered, for 
whose wrongs and blood no government has ever made 
any inquisition. It is permitted, to this hour, to one 
man to maltreat, Ito murder, to rob, to strip, to destroy 
another man, in Nashville, in Memphis, in New Or- 
leans, in Mobile, in Charleston, and even in Richmond, 
close up under the eye of government. There has 
never been an hour for the last twenty-five years when 
government would lift a voice or stretch out a hand to 
protect Northern men against the outrages committed 
upon them by men at the South. Now I demand that, 
when the American flag is next unfurled in South 
Carolina, it shall protect me there, as it protects a 
South Carolinian in New York. I demand that it 
shall protect me in Mobile, as it protects a Mobilian 
here. I demand that this shall be a common country, 
and that all men shall enjoy the imperishable rights 
which the Constitution guarantees to every American 
citizen. I demand that there shall be such a victory 
of this flag as shall make the whole and undivided 
land the common possession of all and every one of 
its citizens ! 

If any man asks me whether I will consent to a com- 
promise, I reply. Yes. I love compromises ; they are 
dear to me — if I may make them. Give me a com- 
promise that shall bring peace. Let me say, " Hang 
the ringleading traitors ; suppress their armies ; give 



THE NATIONAL FLAG. 127 

peace to their fields ; lift up the banner, and make a 
highway in which every true American citizen, mind- 
ing his own business, can walk unmolested ; free the 
Territories, and keep them free," — that is our com- 
promise. Give to us the doctrine of the fathers, 
renew the Declaration of Independence, refill the 
Constitution with the original blood of liberty, destroy 
traitors and treason, make the doctrine of secession a 
byword and a hissing ; make laws equal ; let that 
justice for which they were ordained be the same in 
Maine or Carolina, to the rich and to the poor, the 
bond and the free, and thus we will compromise. 

But as long as compromise means J^okes on us 
and license to them, silence for liberty and open- 
mouthed freedom to despotism, so long compromise 
is a Devil's juggle ; no man that is a freeman and a 
Christian should be caught in any such snare as that. 
I ask for nothing except that which the fathers meant. 
I ask for the fulfilment of Washington's prayer. I 
ask for the* carrying out of the designs of those sacred 
men that sat in conclave at Independence Hall in 
Philadelphia, and framed our immortal Constitution. 
I ask for liberty in New York, in Carolina, in Ala- 
bama, in every State and in every Territory. I ask 
for it throughout the whole land. I ask no Northern 
advantage. It is a mere geographical accident that 
liberty is in the North. It is not because it is the 
North, but because the North is free, that I ask for 
the ascendency of Northern principles. 

Ah ! that Daniel Webster had lived to see what we 
(3o, — that strong man whose faith failed him in a 
fatal hour of ambition ! I will read from a speech of 
his better days one of the noblest passages that ever 



128 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

issued from the iininspired pen of man. It is ap- 
propriate for this hour : — 

" When my eyes shall be turned to behold, for the last 
time, the sun in heaven, may I not see him shining on the 
broken and dishonored fragments of a once glorious Union ; 
on States dissevered, discordant, belligerent ; on a land rent 
with civil feuds,' or drenched, it may be, in fraternal blood ! 
Let their last feeble and lingering glance, rather, behold the 
gorgeous ensign of the Republic, now known and honored 
throughout the earth, still full high advanced, its arms and 
trophies streaming in their original lustre, not a stripe erased 
or polluted, nor a single star obscured, — bearing for its motto 
no such miserable interrogatory as What is all this worth? 
nor those other words of delusion and folly, Liberty first, 
and Union afterwards, — but everywhere, spread all over in 
characters of living light, blazing on all its ample folds, as 
they float over the sea and over the land, and in every wind 
under the whole heavens, that other sentiment, dear to every 
true American heart, — Liberty and Union, now and forever, 
one and inseparable," 

God grant it, — God grant it ! 

You live in a civilized age. You go on a sacred 
mission. The prayers and sympathies of Christendom 
are with you. You go to open again the shut-up 
fountains of liberty, and to restore this disgraced ban- 
ner to its honor. You go to serve your country in 
the cause of liberty ; and if God brings you into con- 
flict erelong with those misguided men of the South, 
when you see their miserable, new-vamped banner, 
remember what that flag means, — Treason, Slavery, 
Despotism ; then look up and see the bright stars and 
the glorious stripes over your own head, and read in 
them Liberty, Liberty, Liberty ! 



■ THE NATIONAL FLAG. 129 

And if you fall in that struggle, may some kind 
hand wrap around about you the flag of your country, 
and may you die with its sacred touch upon you. It 
shall be sweet to go to rest lying in the folds of your 
country's banner, meaning, as it shall mean, " Liberty 
and Union, now and forever." 

We will not forget you. You go forth from us not 
to be easily and lightly passed over. The waves shall 
not close over the places which you have held ; but 
when you return, not as you go, many of you inex- 
perienced, and many of you unknown, you shall 
return from the conquests of liberty with a reputation 
and a character established forever to your children 
and your children's children. It shall be an honor, 
it shall be a legend, it shall be a historic truth ; and 
your posterity shall say : " Our fathers stood up in the 
day of peril, and laid again the foundations of liberty 
that were shaken ; and in their hands the banner of 
our country streamed forth like the morning star 
upon the night." 

God bless you! 



6* 



YI. 



THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES* 



" For the Lord thy God walketh in the midst of thy camp, to deliver 
thee, and to give up thine enemies before thee ; therefore shall thy camp 
be holy; that he see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee." 
— Deut. xxiii. 14. 




HAT Christian people should learn to dread 
the camp is not strange. The evils which 
have gone along with armies, the dangers 
of moral infection in military camps, are 
not imaginary, and are perhaps not less than our 
greatest fears would lead us to believe them to be. 
And yet it ought not to be forgotten that these evils 
are vincible, and that, though real, they may be over- 
come. There are no circumstances where Christian 
courage may not gain a victory over the sharpest 
temptations. It should not be forgotten that the 
world is indebted to camp life for institutions which 
have done more to infuse order and civilization among 
men than any legislation. God's people lived in mili- 
tary camps for full half a century. In camps Moses 
promulgated the Hebrew code. In the camp they 
began to practise the matchless elements of the 
Hebrew Commonwealth. In the camp the slavish 



* Preached during May, 1861. 



THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 131 

habits which they had contracted were gradually 
worn off, their idolatrous tendencies were at last 
repressed, and their national education began. Per- 
haps the purest, most orderly and well-regulated 
period of the Hebrew history was that of their early 
camp life. More brilliant periods there were, under 
David and Solomon ; but I doubt if ever there was, 
on the whole, a more moral period. Nor will a 
study of the rules and regulations of that life be 
unprofitable even now. For while Moses has noth- 
ing to teach us in strictly military matters, he has 
anticipated almost every effort of science for health, 
cleanliness, order, and good civic economy, striving, 
with imperfect means, to be sure, to do that which, 
with more perfect instrumentalities, science is now 
accomplishing. 

Our text shows the influences upon which this effort 
was based. Keligion was brought to bear, with its ap- 
propriate influences, upon camp life. 

There can be no doubt that camp morals, subse- 
quently to this epoch, and in other nations, have 
deserved all the ill repute which they have acquired. 
Nor can we suppose camp life ever, under the most 
favorable circumstances, to be as conducive to virtue 
as is the family state in civic communities. 

But we must not look upon it as always and neces- 
sarily so great an evil as it was in the past ages of 
European military history. Camps do not need to 
continue to be what they have hitherto been. For the 
world has advanced. Every method of living has ad- 
vanced. We know better what to do, we know how 
to do better, and we are doing better, in every element 
of life, than did ages past. The morals of the com- 



132 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

mon people, and of soldiers, who spring from them, 
are eminently bettei; than they used to be. The cir- 
cumstances under which war is conducted are much 
changed, and clianged much for the better. Experi- 
ence, and the facilities for organizing and supplying 
armies, have removed many of the temptations to 
evil. At least, they have made it unnecessgiry for 
men to be wicked. 

It has been the policy of this nation to discourage 
standing armies. It is a wise policy, and it never 
appeared so wise as now. Standing armies are always 
dangerous ; and I can hardly doubt that, had there 
been a hundred thousand men subject to the control 
of those wicked men just ejected from this govern- 
ment, our liberties would have* been in peril. They 
would have been suppressed, to be acquired again 
only by crossing a Red Sea of blood. We owe much 
of our salvation to the fact that there was not a mili- 
tary power in the hands of an Administration imbecile 
in all but corruption. Everything else had been got 
ready to overthrow the government but this infernal 
enginery of a standing army. 

The theory of our people has been, that, as the 
common people framed their government, administer 
their government, and are the sources of power and 
of political influence in that government, so and in 
like manner the common people shall be their own 
soldiers, and do their own fighting, when it is neces- 
sary. War will not be unnecessarily provoked when 
the men that provoke the war are obliged themselves 
to wage it. 

But with great wisdom two provisions have been 
made. First, the common people have been enrolled 



THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 133 

as a militia, and made to have some little idea of com- 
bination and drill. It has notJseen much, it has been 
just enough to subject them to the ridicule of profes- 
sional blatterers ; nevertheless, it has been sufficient. 
And whenever the common people of this land have 
been called upon for the defence of things that were 
worth fighting for, they have brought the conflict to a 
successful issue. 

Next, public military academies have given the 
most rigid and thorough education to men selected 
from every State. And thus we have an intelligent 
and hardy common people, somewhat acquainted with 
the rudiments of army formations, and of the duties 
of soldiers, for a foundation ; and for leaders, men of 
scientific military education. 

And now, when war breaks out with us, the camp 
is both better and worse than European camps and 
camps of other countries. It is better, or may be, 
because it is made up, not of professional soldiers 
without civil sympathies, cut off from pursuits of 
ordinary life, but of citizens, pervaded with the sym- 
pathies of citizens ; of men who go to war as one of 
life's duties, alternative duties, and not as their voca- 
tion." And such men ought to make better soldiers 
than others, more moral and more manly. 

It is worse, because in regular armies, and among 
soldiers trained for years, there is an education toward 
neatness and order and economy of living which a 
body of volunteers suddenly gathered together are 
not likely to have. In the Mexican war, if I remem- 
ber correctly, the deaths by sickness in the volunteer 
regiments were more than one hundred per cent 
greater than in the regular army ; showing the differ- 



134 FKEEDOM AND WAR. 

ence between practised skill in living and the inex- 
perience of the volunteers. 

Such, with its faults, and with possible excellences, 
is the American military system. It is not our busi- 
ness now so much to subject it to criticism, as to 
accept it with its duties and responsibilities. For, in 
the providence of God, war is upon us. It is quite 
immaterial whether we wish it or not, whether we 
think it might have been avoided, or whether every 
step on either side has been the wisest. The past is 
past. Let the dead bury their dead. War, I repeat, 
is upon us. The army is collecting. Various camps 
are forming. The question for the whole Christian 
community is this : What is the duty of this country 
toward its camps ? 

It is not enough, then, that we should simply en- 
courage men to volunteer in their country's cause, 
clothe them, equip them, get them off, and then con- 
sider them as no longer on our hands. It is a part of 
our duty to equip them, and see that they are well 
fitted out, and to send them off under good auspices ; 
but we must also consider ourselves responsible for 
the continued well-being of that army which we send 
forth to do, not their work, but our work. It is not 
enough for us to do some things. That great army 
that is gathering around the government of this na- 
tion, to maintain its sacred laws and principles, must 
be adopted by all Christian men at home, and must 
be provided for, not simply in clothes and food, but 
in education and in morals. We must see to it that 
physically they are well equipped, and we must see to 
it that that moral care which comes from material 
sources (and there is a good deal of it) is provided ; 



THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 135 

but when we have provisioned and clothed and equip- 
ped the men, and put them beyond the reach of 
physical want, we have but just begun to discharge 
our duties toward them. 

The army must feel that it is not a thing separated 
from society, and different from it. It is only the arm 
of society stretched out, not cut off, but joined to the 
body, receiving circulation from it yet, and in vital 
sympathy with it. That we may better understand 
our duties, I will point out some of the dangers to 
which our men are liable, and some of the measures 
by which these dangers may be averted. 

1. As armies are formed, it must necessarily be the 
case that they shall come together in an ill-assorted 
and socially unfit manner. But a young man ought 
to learn how to live with men differing in every respect 
from himself. A young man must learn to live with 
men ; with men mixed and various, good and bad, of 
all dispositions and habits ; and surely, if a man does 
not learn it in the army, it is because he is not apt 
to learn. One can scarcely conceive of men brought 
together with less principle of assortment than in 
volunteer regiments. Many are ruined in learning 
this lesson ; and many are ruined that need not have 
been, had some one taught them, warned them, and 
encouraged them to maintain their own individuality. 
Old and young are huddled together. Some of 
strong will and others of an impressible disposition 
are brought in contact with each other, and you know 
which will receive the dent. The hard and the soft 
are side by side. Among them are the proud man, 
that receives no impressions from others, and the ap- 
probative man, that stands on his own root by a slen- 



136 FREEDOM AND WAFv. 

der stem, and nods and bobs in the wind like a rush 
or daisy. It is a good school, if it did not spoil so 
many for the sake of making a few. But so it is. 
The army is so formed that the first lesson, and the 
first danger, is that of living with men who are 
entirely unlike themselves. 

2. There is a sudden change of all the habits of 
life. Men become their own cooks, their own cham- 
bermaids, their own seamstresses, and their own 
washerwomen. Tables, linen, china cups, and delf 
plates disappear. Men go down to camp life to become 
almost savage in the simplicity of domestic economies. 
No beds receive them such as they have been accus- 
tomed to. No such relations of table and social 
intercourse as they have previously enjoyed are en- 
joyed by them now. They seem to have been stripped 
bare of tlie refinements of civilized society. All in- 
fiuences calculated to promote the exterior and physi- 
cal proprieties of life seem to be removed from them. 
These things are apt to beget great carelessness and 
rudeness, and even a positive barbarism, unless they 
are resisted and counteracted. 

It seems as though there were very little religions 
influence in a clean face, a clean skin, and a comely 
garb ; but there is a good deal of simple moral influ- 
ence in these things. When a man does not care for 
tlie neatness of his person, nor for the ordinary. pro- 
prieties and economies of life, he is verging toward 
the barbarous state. It is so even with men of moral 
stamina and settled characters ; but how much more, 
if character is unfashioned and habits unformed ! 

3. The restraints, the affections, the softening influ- 
ences of the household, are taken away from the 



THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 137 

soldier in the camp. No man can imagine the dif- 
ference wliich this makes till he has seen it and felt 
it. Men that at home are not only moral and deco- 
rous, but who are without temptation or desire to be 
anything else, when away from home do things so 
utterly out of character that they seem not to. be the 
same persons. There is, it may be said, a sort of 
mania or insanity that falls on men away from home. 
Men that at home not only do not drink, but do not 
want to, when they go away from home and the 
restraints of the family to reside for weeks, do drink 
and become intoxicated. Men that at home are 
never subject to vagrant thoughts, almost lose the 
power of regulated thought away from home. No 
one imagities how much he is upheld by the moral 
influences of those about him, and how little by his 
own will and character, till he goes abroad alone. 
When a man goes alone to England, he says, " There 
is not a man in this whole kingdom who will know 
what I d*o," and he has a morbid curiosity to know 
how he will feel undgr such and such circumstances, 
and he does things that he never did before, to satisfy 
that curiosity. A man in Paris who knows there is 
not a man in Paris that knows him, is not the same 
man that he was in New York. That is to say, he is 
subject to temptations and influences that he never 
would have been subject to at home. When men that 
are patterns of morality in the village come to New 
York, in spring and fall, to do business, they are not 
always patterns of morality. They seem to slough 
moral habits for the time being. Those that deal with 
them know it. It would not do for them .to treat this 
or that man at home as they treated him the last time 



138 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

they were in New York. It would produce an uproar 
in the church, or an explosion in the family ! It is 
not because they are hypocrites that they deport them- 
selves in one way at home and in another way abroad ; 
it is not because they are insincere ; it is because 
men are stronger at home surrounded with friends, 
responsible to a public sentiment, sustained by exam- 
ple and social sympathies, than when they are left 
standing alone. It is so good to the soul and to the 
morals to be surrounded by those who bear sweet 
affinities and relationships, that when a man has them 
he is well, and when he has not he is sick or feeble. 
It is not surprising that young men should feel as 
older men have felt, since the world began, when re- 
moved from social restraints and domestic influences. 

To this must be added the almost necessary rude- 
ness of a womanless state. If God were to take the 
sun and moon and stars out of the heavens, the 
chances for husbandry would be what, if God were 
to take woman out of life, would be the cliances for 
refinement and civilization. W.oman carries civiliza- 
tion in her heart. It springs from her. Her power 
and influence mark the civilization of any country. 
A man that lives in a community where he has the 
privileges of woman's society, and is subject to wo- 
man's influence, is almost of necessity refined, more 
than he is aware of ; and when men are removed 
from the genial influence of virtuous womanhood, 
the very best degenerate, or feel the deprivation. 

There is something wanting in the air when you 
get west of the Alleghany Mountains on a sultry day 
of summer. The air east of the mountain is supplied 
with a sort of pabulum from the salt water of the 



THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 139 

ocean, by which one is sustained in the sultriest days 
of midsummer. Now what this salt is to the air, that 
is woman's influence to the virtue of a community. 
You breathe it without knowing it. All you know is 
that you are made stronger and better. And a man 
is not half a man unless a woman helps him to be ! 
One of the mischiefs of camp life is that women are 
removed from it. The men may not know what it is 
that lets them down to a lower state of feeling, or 
what that subtle influence was that kept them up to 
a higher state of refinement, but it is the absence 
of woman in the one case, as it was the presence of 
woman in the other. Woman is a light which God 
has set before man to show him which way to go, and 
blessed is he who has sense enough to follow it ! 

4. To this must be added the evils which are liable 
to spring out of the interplay and alternation of idle- 
ness and excessive exertion in camp life. Men whose 
habits are regular are half saved to begin with. A 
man who has an order of business which brings some- 
thing to be done every hour, which fills every hour 
with occupation, is a match for the Devil. Satan finds 
plenty of mischief for idle hands to do, and very little 
for busy hands. But men whose calling is spasmodic, 
who use up their strength in a few hours, and then 
fall back upon indolence and self-indulgence, are pe- 
culiarly in danger. You shall find that tliose work- 
men who are excessively taxed, — glass-blowers, foun- 
drymen, the boat hands on our Western rivers, ex- 
pressmen, and the like, — who have, during one or 
two hours, to do work enough for eight or ten men 
to each man, and who are obliged to concentrate the 
whole energy of their life and power for this brief 



140 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

period, and then Ml back upon five or six indolent 
hours, are the men that are most in danger, and that 
are most apt to be reckless, wild, daring, and physi- 
cally self-indulgent. Experience will sliow that wliile 
regular and successive industries, which furnish em- 
ployment for every hour, conduce to morals, excessive 
labor for a few hours, followed by long intervals of 
indolence, is demoralizing. No man can go through 
the experience of such labor and alternate indolence 
and come out sound and well. 

Now this is peculiarly the experience of the camp. 
The drill goes for nothing : that is mere play. But 
with camp life comes the long march to-day, and the 
lying still for three or four days ; the desperate con- 
flict, with all its excitement for a few hours, and the 
rest for the ensuing week ; long periods of inactivity, 
interspersed with occasional intensifications of activity. 
These things shake the habits of the whole moral fab- 
ric of a man. Morbid appetites spring up from such 
irregularities. The body ceases to perform its normal 
functions, the tendencies of life are different, and the 
whole character is changed. 

5. We must remember that the aim and end of war 
is physical violence. Now men cannot be associated 
with objects of violence and not receive collateral 
moral impressions from them. If men are educated, 
and if they bear with them a stern will, and look 
upon war as a terrible but necessary evil, they may 
go through it and escape unharmed. Such a man as 
Anderson can go through the most dreadful experir 
ences of war and come out a Christian, a humane, a 
gentle man. Where a man brings a heart and a faith 
into experiences like these he may avoid harm, as 



THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 141 

they did who went through the fire without even the 
smell of fire upon their garments ; but raw, unen- 
lightened, untrained natures cannot but be hardened 
and depraved by them. A man, however, cannot tell 
what effect they will have upon him till he is brought 
into the midst of them. Some are cured of cruelty 
by the sight of blood. They revolt from it with the 
whole force of their being. Some have a natural ten- 
dency to it ; and when they come into the exercise 
of it they speedily sink into degeneracy, and drag 
others down with them. At any rate, this living for 
an end of violence must affect the whole moral nature. 
A life supremely devoted to resistance, to contention, 
to destruction, must be full of dangers. 

6. We must consider the peculiar danger of camps 
in producing intemperance. So great is this danger 
that we might almost compromise, and say, " Give us 
release from that, and we will run the risk of every 
other one." The desire of excitement, for various 
reasons, is nowhere else, perhaps, so great as in the 
camp. Where, for instance, men are to prepare 
themselves for hard and successive work, it is not 
unnatural that they should seek to rouse up their 
energies with strong drink. And where men have 
gone through severe and long-continued labor, where 
they have been deprived of their appropriate food, 
where they have been exposed to extremes of heat or 
cold, where they have been taxed with a harassing 
watch or a desperate fight, where all their habits have 
been irregular, then nothing is more natural than that 
they should seek to repair their wasted strength by 
intoxicating drinks. But the indulgence in the use 
of ardent spirits for such purposes is a fatal indul- 



142 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

gence. I tliiiik the distinction between the right and 
wrong use of alcoholic stimulants lies simply in this : 
The man that uses them for producing digestion, or 
so as to promote prompt and efficient action of the 
natural functions of the system, is using them medi- 
cinally ; but the man that uses them either for the 
purpose of unnaturally exciting the physical energies, 
or for the purpose of repairing the waste of those en- 
ergies by excessive exertion, is using them fatally. 
If you use them for the sake of fitting yourself to 
make a brilUant speech, you use them fatally. If you 
use them in order that you may supply the strength 
you want for an emergency, you use them fatally. 
And if you use them for the purpose of making up 
for the strength that you have lost in any severe un- 
dertaking, you use them fatally. If you use them 
either to create power, or to compensate for the ex- 
haustion of power, of mind or body, you violate tlie 
laws of nature, and so use them fatally. When Paul 
said to Timothy, " Use a little wine for thy stomach's 
sake and thine often infirmities," he doubtless re- 
ferred to the fact that Timothy had the dyspepsia, 
and that a little wine might help his digestion, and 
that it was through good digestion that he was to 
have good blood, good nerves, and good muscles ! 
But if a man keeps a fiery stream of stimulus pour- 
ing upon his brain for the purpose of increasing its 
activity, he is a marked man, and his name is already 
written down in the book of death. When men are 
severely taxed, there is nothing more natural than 
that they should clutch at anything that will afford 
them momentary relief. And any indulgence in this 
practice is apt to be fatal, because when spirituous 



THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 143 

liquors have been taken for one thing, they will 
naturally be taken for others. 

The dulness, the weariness, the ennui of camp life 
is greatly alleviated by the social festive glass. 

The pernicious influence of example in the matter 
of drinking will also be felt in the camp. The young 
man who is not wont to drink may be led to do it 
because he has not the moral courage to resist the 
temptation under which he is brought. A young 
man in the ranks naturally wants to stand well with 
the officers, a young officer naturally wants to stand 
well with his superior officers, one that is weak natu- 
rally wants to stand well with those that are stronger 
than himself, and there is danger that many will fall 
into the habit of drinking for the sake of gaining 
favor, A man that is superior in any respect to his 
fellows has great power of persuasion over them, and 
can, if he be intemperate, do much toward drawing 
them into intemperance. 

Could intoxicating drinks be kept away from camps, 
one half of their 'dangers would be obviated. And 
for any one that is going forth to meet the tempta- 
tions of camp life, I had almost said I would sum up 
in one simple word of remembrance a talisman of 
safety, — Temperance, absolute temperance. There 
are other dangers of the camp, but there are so 
many connected with this that we almost forget the 
rest, and say that you will be safe if you are strictly 
temperate. 

Why, I think war kills more after it is over thali 
during its continuance. It is not the man who comes 
home hmping on one usable leg that is most dam- 
aged : it is the man that comes home with two legs 



144 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

and two arms, and with no use for them. It is not 
the man who comes home pierced through so as to be 
all his life an invalid, that war most damages ; it is 
the man that, pierced through with the liquid shot, 
comes reeling and staggering home to be all his life 
useless. And I say to every one that has anything 
to do with the camp, For the love of God, for the 
love of man, for the sake of patriotism, and for the 
salvation of those that are imperilled, take care of the 
young men, that they do not become drunkards ! 

7. There is an evil to be dreaded from the conta- 
gion of bad men in camp life. I am not referring to 
gross and shamelessly bad men. When a man be- 
comes shamelessly bad, he becomes comparatively 
harmless. It is not the thing with poison scattered 
all over the outside that endangers anybody; it is 
the cake that is poison, but is sweetened and not 
seen to be poison ; it is the liquor that is poisoned 
at the bottom, and is not suspected of being poisoned. 
I do not know, so far as my personal inspection is 
concerned, but certain companies that have been 
raised in New York are saints prepared for glory, 
but the papers do represent them -as being made up 
of quite another class of men, and that they will 
leave New York wonderfully purified when they go 
forth to do a patriot's duty in a distant State ! But 
if there should be found in the volunteer force a 
burglar, a thief, a scoundrel, a culprit, he is not the 
man to be very dangerous to young men. Do you 
suppose a virtuous young man is going to learn 
pocket picking in the camp? Do you suppose a 
young man is going to learn stealing there ? These 
things do not come by contagion. They are the final 



THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 145 

results of insidious causes. They are the desperate 
ends of fair beginnings. They are the holes through 
which men go out of our sight into perdition. It is 
not the endings, but the beginnings, that are to be 
guarded against. 

The men that are dangerous in camps are not 
bloated drunkards, shameless gamblers, and such as 
they. But an accomplished officer, a brilliant fellow, 
who knows the world, who is gentle in language, who 
understands all the etiquettes of society, who is fear- 
less of God, who believes nothing in religion, who 
does not hesitate with wit and humor to jeer at 
sacred things, who takes an infernal pleasure in 
winding around his finger the young about him, 
who is polished and wicked, and walks as an angel 
of light to tempt his fellow-men, as Satan did to 
tempt our first parents, — if there be in the camp 
such a one, he is the dangerous man ! And the 
camp is full of such ones. The worst of it is that the 
young do not suspect them till it is too late to avoid 
them. There is a sort of dynamic influence that 
superior natures exert upon inferior ones. It is said 
that a cat can fascii>ate a bird, and that a snake fas- 
cinates its own victims. There is no doubt that one 
human being can fascinate another. There is no 
doubt that one man built in a certain way has almost 
complete ascendency over another man built in a dif- 
ferent way. This fact is fearfully illustrated in the 
camp by the contamination of the young and inex- 
perienced under the influence of bad men with whom 
they come in contact. 

I shall not mention the petty vices of lawlessness 
that grow up in war. When men are assaulting an 

7 -J 



146 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

enemy, and overrunning an enemy's territory, when a 
town having resisted them, they have, by the strength 
of their right hand, broken through all obstacles, and 
taken possession of it, they are not apt to be too re- 
spectful of the rights of those that are at their mercy. 
Rapine and thefts and various violence grow up under 
such circumstances. 

I shall mention but one other danger, and that only 
indirectly has a moral bearing upon tliis subject, — I 
mean the danger of neglecting to observe the laws 
of health. I have been very much affected in seeing 
how men that are gathered iilto our regiments live. 
You and I that live in ceiled houses, and have changes 
of apparel for all the seasons, — spring, summer, au- 
tumn, and winter, — and many of them for each sea- 
son, can scarcely form a conception of the poverty 
and destitution of many laboring men, but particu- 
larly foreigners, who enlist in the army. When their 
shoes give out, they have to make a special campaign 
to get another pair. When their hat gives out, they 
wear it still. When their coat gives out, they get 
another if they can. How little these men know of 
the laws of health ! How little they know of the 
economies of life ! Now hurry a thousand, or ten 
thousand of these men, by land and water away from 
home, oblige them to be irregular in their habits, give 
them poor food miserably cooked, let them after a 
long, fagging day's journey go to camp so tired that 
they can hardly see, and throw themselves down 
under the first bush or tree, no matter whether the 
ground is wet or dry, so that when they wake up they 
feel as though a ramrod had been run through their 
arms and their legs, — and is it to be wondered at that 



THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 1-47 

multitudes of tlicm sicken and die? The hospitals 
that receive the sick from armies are a commentary 
on the knowledge that prevails among men respecting 
the laws of health. In ninety-nine cases out of a 
hundred the sickness of camp life is owing to the fact 
that men do not know how to take care of themselves. 
Were I a chaplain in the army, while I would preach 
and distribute books and tracts, and do special minis- 
terial work, I would, in the main, see to it that the 
health of the soldiers was not neglected. I would 
explain to them health-laws, and urge them to observe 
them, and watch over them as tenderly as a mother 
watches over her child. And to any man that is 
going as chaplain I would say. Take care of your 
men's health. For although health is not religion, 
religion is very much dependent on health. A candle 
is not a candlestick, but a candle without a candle- 
stick is of little account. If a man is going to keep 
his soul alight, he must have a good body to hold it 
in. And one important duty of the sanctuary is to 
teach the ignorant and unknowing of these matters 
which are so vital to their prosperity. 

Thus much on that side. Allow me a few words 
now to those who go. 

There are going out in all our companies not a few 
who, thank God, have been religiously trained, and 
are themselves professors of religion, and yet more 
who, though they may not be professors of religion, 
are really moral and virtuous men. I exhort all such 
that they should see eye to eye ; that they should find 
each other out; that they should band together for the 
right. Where two men come together on the ground 
of moral principle, there is a church. Where two 



148 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

men associate themselves together for the purpose of 
promotmg a moral cause, there is a church. An ocean 
is nothing but an aggregate of drops ; and every drop 
is a factor of that ocean. And large churches are 
nothing but collections of multitudinous drops. But 
where there are two men united in a Christian work 
there is a church ; and there ought to be in every 
regiment and company and platoon a little church. 
If in any regiment or company or platoon there are 
two men that are moral and good, they ought to stand 
out at once and take ground for goodness and moral- 
ity. It is a shame, to see how fearlessly bad men take 
ground for iniquity, and how shy good men are of 
avowing religion. There ought to be a bold stand 
taken in favor of virtue by the good in each one of 
the various companies. If there is not such a stand 
taken in Company C of the Fourteenth Regiment, I 
shall be ashamed of my preaching. We have sent 
out fifteen or twenty young men that are distributed 
through the companies of another regiment ; but we 
have sent more in this particular regiment, because 
they have remained later upon our hands. And I 
expect that there will be a real moral influence 
exerted through the regiment by the young men that 
are in it who have gone out of this church. 

There ought to be in the camp a provision made to 
supply the wants of the men in the intervals of drill 
and conflict. I have spoken of the temptations of 
indolence. We shall be utterly delinquent in duty 
if we make no provision of reading for them. They 
have nothing to do ; their camp-fire is burning ; the 
sun has just sunk below the horizon ; they sit in 
groups here and there ; the story-teller is in vogue ; 



THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 149 

the man that has the most fluent tongue, and that 
is the most amusing, is the man that is popular, — 
not the man that retires to his tent, or at a little 
distance, to commune with God ; but the entertaining 
man, the man that knows how to lessen the tedium 
of the hour. This gives "ascendency to dangerous 
men. But if every day there was something to read, 
this evil would be in a great measure overcome. A 
daily newspaper has become almost as necessary to us 
at home as our daily food ! The want will be felt in 
camp. We cannot eat our breakfast without a morn- 
ing paper, nor our supper without an evening paper ; 
and I should not be surprised if before long we should 
think we could not get our dinner without a noon 
paper. Of course Bibles and Testaments will go with 
the men, but there ought to be other reading for 
them. We have at least two Tract Societies ; and it 
seems to me that, while they send some tracts, and a 
few books, they could not put the greater proportion 
of their funds to so good a use as that of subscribing 
for good sound papers, to be read by the soldiers 
during leisure hours, or while sitting in the doors of 
their tents.- There is a moral influence in such read- 
ing. Not only does it occupy their leisure hours, but 
it takes them out of the dangers of camp life, and 
carries them back to their homes, and leads them to 
think of father and mother, and sisters and brothers, 
and childhood. It abolishes distance. It annihilates 
separation. It quickens their memory and awakens 
their imagination. It prevents them from losing their 
identity. See that the men have books and papers 
enough. And if the great pubhshing houses feel as 
if it is not in their line to give secular reading-matter, 



150 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

there ought to be organizations formed by which the 
camp shall be filled with newspapers. The most 
efficacious secular book that ever was published in. 
America is the newspaper ! 

In other ways there should be kept alive sympathy 
between the camp and tl*e community ; between the 
camp and home. Ah ! the chaplain may go round 
and talk to the men as much as he pleases, but I tell 
you, the things that work most powerfully on them 
are the thoughts of home and friends that pass 
through their minds when they sit with their elbows 
on their knees, and with their eyes shut, and say to 
themselves, " My mother is singing," or, " My father 
is praying." Those golden threads that go forth out 
of the much-weaving mother's heart ; those threads 
of love and domesticity that never break by long 
stretching, that go around and around the globe 
itself and yet keep fast hold, — these, after all, are 
the things that work most powerfully on men ! 

Now, let them be supplied with tokens, mementos, 
remembrancers, from those that are left behind. 
"When the soldier looks upon the little things that 
have been sent him by dear ones at home, he cannot 
suppress his tears. But do you suppose it is because 
he has a few luxuries ? It is not the things them- 
selves that he cares for. As likely as not he gives 
these away to his comrades. But loving hearts were 
prompted to send them to him, and kind hands 
placed them in the box ! They are evidences of affec- 
tionate regard cherished for him. All these things 
work wonders in the camp. 

Let us take care of those that go out from among 
us. It would be a shame if this Christian comma- 



THE CAMP, ITS DANGERS AND DUTIES. 151 

nity, having sent forth young men to fight the bat- 
tles of the country, should forget them. You have 
but just begun your duty toward them. The most se- 
rious part of that duty is to take care of the camp ! 

My Christian friends, I have the utmost confidence, 
I need not tell you, in the American principle of self- 
government. Anything on God's earth can be done 
by an intelligent, virtuous, self-governing people ; 
and though monarchies cannot have camps without 
mischief, the American people can civilize and Chris- 
tianize the camp. I roll the responsibility of doing 
this upon our churches. I assume my part of the 
responsibility. It will be a shame to our civiliza- 
tion and Christianity if we are not able to take these 
camps in the arms of a sanctifying faith, and lift them 
above those corrupting tendencies which are insepara- 
ble from war. I hope to see those who go from this 
church come back, not only as good as they go, but 
better, more manly, more fearless for the right. I do 
not expect that there will be any castaways among 
them. I do not believe that one of them will be a 
deserter from the faith. I feel assured that they will 
all be more confirmed soldiers of the Lord Jesus 
Christ, — aijd they will be better soldiers of him by 
as much as they are good soldiers of their country. 

Now let us acknowledge our obligations in this 
matter, and take hold of hands and discharge those 
obligations. While you thank God that he has raised 
up so many that are wilhng and eager to defend our 
country, and although you have contributed liberally 
of your means to prepare them to go, you must re- 
member that your duty toward them has but just 
begun to be performed. You must follow them with 



152 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

your prayers, morning, noon, and niglit. Not only 
that, you must see that their wants are provided for, 
and, more than all other things, that their moral 
wants are provided for. The church and camp must 
work together in this great emergency. 

May God speed them that go forth. Every morn- 
ing, when I have arisen, for a week or ten days past, 
I have rushed down expecting to hear the tocsin of 
the battle. But as some lurid days that have thunders 
in them will not storm, but hold themselves aloof, and 
gather copper color in the sky, because the bolt is to 
fall with more terrific violence ; so it seems to me 
that in the impressive silence which prevails the storm 
of battle is only collecting, and collecting, because the 
great conflict is coming erelong like God's thunder- 
crack ! When it does come I have not the least doubt 
as to where victory will issue ; I have not the least 
doubt as to which side will triumph. I foresee the 
victory. I rejoice in it, in anticipation ; not because 
it is to be on our side, but because it has pleased 
God, in his infinite mercy, to make liberty our side ; 
not because we are North and they are South, but 
because we have civilization and they have barbarism, 
because we stand on the principle of eq^iity and lib- 
erty, and they stand on the principle of slavery and 
injustice. It will be a moral victory more than a 
military victory. 

May God speed the day, give the victory, crown it 
with peace, restore unity, and make it more compact 
and enduring because freed from this contamination, 
this poison, in our system ! 



VII 



ENERGY OF ADmNISTRATION DEMANDI;D.^ 



"Now Elisha was fallen sick, of his sickness whereof he died. And 
Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and 
said, my father, my father! the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen 
thereof ! And Elisha said unto him. Take bow and arrows. And he took 
unto him bow and arrows. And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine 
hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it; and Elisha put his 
hands upon the king's hands. And he said, Open the window eastward. 
And he opened it. Then Elisha said. Shoot. And he shot. And he said. 
The arrow of the Lord's deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from 
Syria : for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed 
them. And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said 
unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and 
stayed. And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thoii shouldest 
have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou 
hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice." — 
2 Kings xiii. 14 - 19. 




T is characteristic of the early and rude 
state of society, that military matters were 
conducted much more frequently under the 
suggestions of prophets and priests than of 
generals and kings. And in part this arose from the 
fact that the best heads were usually on the shoulders 
of prophets, and that they gave the best counsels that 
were to be had anywhere. 

The king visited this dying prophet, and received 

* Preached during June, 1861. 
7* 



154 FREEDOM AND WAE. 

from him instruction in respect to the destruction of 
the Syrians. They were the life-long enemies of the 
Israelites. Putting his hand on the king's hand, and 
drawing the bow, and shooting forth the arrow, that 
the whole imagination and attention might be ex- 
cited, he said to the king, "Now take the arrows, 
and smite on the ground." If the king had been 
enthusiastic in his proper work, if his soul had been 
in the business, he would have smitten the ground 
with a witness, and with oft-repeated strokes. And 
EHsha was wroth. He was a long way ahead of the 
king; and he said to him, "You are not thorough; 
your heart is not in this business ; you ought to have 
smitten five or six times." Not that the smiting was 
anything; but the spirit that made him smite three 
times when he should have smitten five or six, was a 
good deal ; and he rebuked him, saying, in substance, 
" Had you been zealous, you should have destroyed 
your enemies ; whereas now you shall gain a short 
advantage, and they shall live to vex you and tor- 
ment you." 

I entirely understand the hesitation and reluctance 
which so many experience at the prospects before us. 
If I could, I certainly would change the condition of 
things. If it were in my power, I would make every 
State that is in rebellion return to its allegiance. If 
I could, I would cause the laws to be respected 
throughout the whole dominion of this government. 
If I could, I would settle this great controversy of the 
age without the shedding of a drop of blood. If 1 
could? I cannot; you cannot ; nobody can. Yet I 
quite understand, and in some sense respect, the 
scruple and the hesitation of many good men on the 
eve of forthcoming events. 



ENERGY OF ADMINISTRATION DEMANDED. 155 

I know how sad, to many persons, must be the fore- 
shadowings of a civil war. If I thought of nothing 
else, it would be equally so to me'. I understand the 
entire prostration of business, and the commercial 
distress which is prevalent in every part of our land, 
and which must continue for months, and perhaps for 
years. I do not attempt to undervalue the incon- 
venience, nor to ignore the portents, of the time in 
which we live. I know what sectional bitterness is 
liable to spring up as the fruit of civil war ; and I 
quite understand their fears who dread the coming of 
such bitterness. I understand, too, a good man's love 
of quiet, tlie moral repulsiveness to him of violence, 
and the attractiveness of peace. I understand the 
weariness which men come at last to have of agitation, 
and of perpetual and reduplicated excitements. 

I understand the ties which connect so many fami- 
lies North and South together, and which will make a 
rupture terrible. For there are multitudes reluctant 
from reasons of heart, quite independently of reason- 
ings of intellect. I rejoice at the unanimity of public 
sentiment which makes the expression of such views 
rather dangerous. Yet I do not believe in any tyranny 
which makes free speech dangerous. At any rate," 
whether on one side or the other, whether for us or 
against us, it seems to me a great deal better to meet 
with thorough discussion and satisfying statements 
these silent scruples, these reluctances, these hesita- 
tions of good men, than to put them down by an 
enforced silence. 

Therefore it is to the inward thoughts, to the undis- 
closed feelings, to that reluctance, moral and social, 
which men are feeling at the idea of war, that I shall 



156 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

speak to-niglit, rather tlian to their ordinary and dis- 
closed speech. 

I purpose considering, then, the duty of this land, 
unitedly, and with tlie utmost energy and decision, to 
^aaintain the government of these United States in 
its original form, over its whole territory, unchanged 
in its Constitution, and unimpaired in every respect. 
That is my position ; and I purpose to discuss the 
reasons why that is the only ground of safety and of 
duty. 

I. It is a duty to maintain the constituted govern- 
ment of tlrese United States. It was organized with 
as much wisdom as has ever been brought to bear 
iTpon any set of civil institutions in the history of the 
world. Its wisdom has been proved by the results 
which it has wrought out. For three quarters of a 
century it has been in operation with a success which 
has made the world marvel. Under this government 
lias grown up a prosperity, advancing throughout 
every part of this land, until this nation has become 
a first-class nation in wealth and civilization. There 
are men yet living who saw the period of the Eevo- 
lutionary War, when we were a despised people, 
scattered in a savage territory, numbering three 
millions, — not three millions strong, but three mil- 
lions weak. And yet, within the lifetime of a single 
man, this nation has, under the benign protection of 
this government, sprung to a position second to that 
of no nation on the globe. Nor was there ever a 
government that, for a period of seventy-five years, 
or thereabouts, was administered with as much wis- 
dom, and with so many benefits, as that government 
which now it is sought to overthrow. 



ENERGY OF ADMINISTRATION DEMANDED. 157 

A good government is not an accident. It is a 
growth. It is the laborious result of painful ex- 
periences. And when a nation has attained to the 
blessing of a good government, it is a blesshig not to 
be tampered with, nor lightly changed, nor rudely 
thrown away. And if there be one duty which God 
has made obligatory upon this people, and upon us in 
particular, it is to see to "it that this government be 
not overthrown without cause, and that its career of 
unrivalled prosperity be not stopped at midway. 

II. The maintenance of this government in its 
original jurisdiction is demanded, not alone because 
it is so good to us, but because it has such signal 
relations to the prosperity of the whole world. It 
was an experiment, — an experiment ridiculed at 
first, then feared, and now detested, by absolute 
monarchs. This government was ah experiment 
that caused the first dawn of hope upon the minds 
of nations struggling in fetters and in bondage ; and 
it has inspired the hope that there was coming a 
period when the common people, the world around, 
should be redeemed from thraldom, and when human 
rights should be respected by governments. Strong 
governments — that is, governments which are not 
of the people — have been put on trial for thousands 
of years, and condemned. If there be anything about 
which the minds of the common people are united, 
it is this : that governments which derive their pow- 
ers, not from the governed, but from the ruling class, 
are inexpedient and mischievous. In my own opin- 
ion, those governments which have derived their 
powers, not from the governed, but from the gov- 
erning class, have been ten thousand times more 



158 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

mischievous to the nations tlian anarchy itself could 
have been. We have been taught in the church and 
state to speak of anarchy as the worst of evils ; but 
absolute monarchy may be worse than anarchy. Such 
governments have stood in the way of religion, of civ- 
ilization, of industry, of popular development; they 
have heaped up the road along which men were 
walking with obstacles, and kept back the world thou- 
sands of years. And anarchy would have been a 
blessing compared with multitudes of them. 

Now this government alone has had the opportu- 
nity of developing in a practical form that which has 
been theoretically developed by wise and good men, 
not a few, in every age. It has demonstrated the 
heresy of absolute governments, and the orthodoxy 
of popular governments. The period had come in 
which men ceased to say that free governments could 
not stand. Everybody pointed to these United States, 
and said, "Behold whether they can or cannot!" 
They waited for our stumbling and downfall for a 
long time ; and now, in the prospect of the dismem- 
berment of this nation, all nations are waiting to see 
whether that shall come to pass which has been pre- 
dicted, — whether it is possible for this government 
to maintain itself. That it can against foreign aggres- 
sion is conceded ; but whether it can against intestine 
mischiefs is the question. I think it can. I have 
such faith in true Christian democracy, and in the 
governments that are derived immediately from the 
people, and that are kept strong and pure by the 
infusion of the popular element, that I regard this 
government not only as abundantly able to cope with 
foreign aggression, but as able also to take care of the 



ENERGY OF ADMINISTRATION DEMANDED. 159 

worst mischiefs at home. And if, from a false sense 
of peace and immediate security, we yield to dismem- 
berment, the whole world that is sitting in judgment 
upon us will at once say, " Popular governments may 
do to repel exterior aggression, but they are too weak 
to resist interior mischiefs, and their period is past." 

I anticipate — a^d that, too, before five or three 
years have rolled away — that republican institutions 
will stand in more respect and awe throughout the 
civilized world than they have ever before done. We 
are on the eve of developing such victorious power, 
I believe, that the nations of the earth which now, on 
the one side, are beginning to fear, or, on the other, 
are beginning to rejoice over our downfall, are soon* 
to see a spectacle of surprising triumph. 

III. The maintenance of this government over all 
its original territory is demanded, because the permis- 
sion of a rebellion such as that now existing under- 
mines not only this government, but all government. 
The rebellion which we are appointed to quell has 
disdained to take one step according to law and ac- 
cording to constitutional agreement. It is not revo- 
lution, even, in any proper and dignified sense of the 
term. Had the measure of territorial division been 
ever so wise, the method by which it has been sought 
is anarchical, and will put back our government a 
hundred years if it be permitted. We, above all peo- 
ple on earth, are so free that we cannot afford to have 
laws and institutions trodden under foot.' Nowhere 
else is disrespect of constituted forms so dangerous as 
among a people that are so high-spirited, so potent, 
and so full of resources as this people are. In mon- 
archies, if anywhere, neglect of laws and constitutions 



160 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

can be afforded. If anywhere, in republican govern- 
ments must a mark be made, and a signal example 
be set, upon all attempts to do things otherwise than 
according to law and according to constitution. 

The treading under foot of every decency and of 
all popular rights has been consistent throughout on 
the part of those that are in armed rebellion against 
this government. Free speech has been permitted 
nowhere, freedom of the vote has been overruled 
everywhere, political management, eventuating in 
military despotism, has been carried from bad to 
worse, in all the steps taken for the overthrow of 
this government. Rebel politicians have despised 
*not the National Government alone, but State gov- 
ernments as well. They have . set aside not alone 
the General Government, but all government, of 
every kind. And we are called upon to maintain, 
not only the sacredness of this government, but the 
sacredness of the principle of governing. 

ly. The maintenance of this government, in its 
entire jurisdiction, and in its original form, is neces- 
sary for the final settlement of the authority, dignity, 
and power of the nation over the separate and con- 
stituent elements of it. This Nation is greater than 
the States that compose it. Republicanism is not on 
trial. It is the principle of federation. It is the 
grand and final conflict of jurisdiction. State and 
National. It is a strife between local and general 
sovereignty. By our Constitution, States are shorn 
of absolute sovereignty, and are limited in jurisdic- 
tion to their own local interests. Beyond that, in the 
sphere of interests common to all, the authority of All, 
represented by the Federal Government, takes prece- 



ENERGY OF ADMINISTRATION DEMANDED. IGl 

dence, and is sovereign, and forms the only absolute 
sovereignty known to our system of government. 

There is at present, in nearly one half of this 
nation, an almost entire want of national feeling. 
There is State feeling, and there is sectional feeling, 
but no national feeling, in the Southern portion of 
this country ; nor has there been. And it is one of 
the objects to be secured by the present great uprising 
of the public mind, to set up and to maintain the dig- 
nity of national government, in distinction from local 
government. This land is but just beginning to be 
settled. Our nation is yet in the gristle. Tliis people 
is scarcely more than the leaven of the people that is 
to fill this continent. The imagination fails in every 
endeavor to conceive, of the grandeur of that national 
form which awaits us, if we resist steadfastly, year by 
year, every attempt at dismemberment. If we main- 
tain, in the sphere in which our fathers placed it, the 
General Government, then the lower and the subordi- 
nate jurisdictions will themselves be empowered, and, 
from ocean to ocean, and from the Lakes to the Gulf, 
there will rise a fabric of wealth and greatness more 
noble and sublime than it hath entered the hearts 
of men to conceive. 

Y. This government should be maintained in its 
original territory and jurisdiction, as the only wise 
method of maintaining peace and prosperity among 
the people of this continent. It is often said by mild 
and good men, " Is not this territory large enough for 
two nations ? " No, it is not. There is not room for 
two nations between the Lakes and the Gulf in this 
land. There is not room between the Atlantic and 
Pacific Oceans for two national governments. It is 



1G2 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

said, " Why not let the South go, if they do not wish 
to stay with us ? " Is this nation a boarding-house, 
from which any dissatisfied boarder can go at his 
option ? Is there no sanctity of the national govern- 
ment ? Do the States owe no duties and obligations 
to the national government? Is there no national 
law ? Is there no right in this matter ? 

But even considering it as a mere question of 
peace, — if you want to walk into the very red-hot 
gates of war, make peace by dismemberment! If 
you want to make war chronic and eternal, if you 
want to make dividing lines blaze with perpetual 
conflicts, then make peace now by dismemberment! 
And if you want peace permanent and perpetual, see 
to it that you fight this battle out thoroughly ! The 
road to peace will lead to war, and the road to war 
will bring peace ! 

This plea for peace addresses always a thousand 
better feelings in the breasts of tens of thousands of 
good men. It is very insidious. It is in accordance 
with all our religious teachings and with all our more 
amiable feelings. It is so sweet to say, " Why should 
we go to war with our brethren ? Why should we 
not have peace ? How much better it is to have pros- 
perity in the shop, prosperity in the ship, prosper- 
ity in the field, and prosperity all through the land I 
0, why should we not get back to the good old days 
of peace and prosperity ? " If you could get back to 
the good old days of peace and prosperity, it would be 
all very well; but you cannot get back. There is a 
stream of nations that is deeper and stronger than the 
Gulf Stream of the Atlantic Ocean. There is a prov- 
idence of God that is being wrought out in the events 



ENERGY OF ADMINISTRATION DEMANDED. 163 

of the present. And I defy you to get back to peace 
and prosperity except in the line of that providence. 
If you take that which you think will bring peace, 
you will find it, instead of being an instrument of 
peace, to be an egg of war ; and it will hatch cocka- 
trices in your hand and in your nest ! • 

There cannot be erected one nation on the North, 
and another on the South, and have the trouble stop 
with their estabhshment. Remember that the men 
whose passions and whose interests make all the dis- 
turbance of the present among us would not be got 
rid of by a division of this land into two govern- 
ments. . They would still live who have turmoiled 
us and vexed us. Not only would their ambition be 
as fierce as now, but success would make it still more 
imperious. If peace meant the obscuration of bad 
men in the South, there would be some reason for 
aspiring to it ; but peace will not rid us of them. If 
we compromise this matter, and let them go, while we 
remain north of Mason and Dixon's line, the very men 
who have fomented trouble for fifteen or twenty years 
in this land would live with more power and more 
audacity ; and they would be more capable of evil 
than ever before, because they would be organized, 
and would do under form of legitimate law and gov- 
ernment what now they are obliged to do in rebellion. 

Nor is that all. Those very elements of discord 
which have embroiled this nation would exist just 
as much if there were two, as they would if there 
was only one government ; and they would act with 
double force. Slavery would still impoverish the 
South, and the prosperity of free industry would 
present a baleful contrast to the results of servile 



164 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

institutions. Slavery would still breed men imperi- 
ous, domineering, and aggressive, who would demand 
of a neighboring nation more than is now demanded 
by the South of neighboring States. By dividing the 
country you would take away that comity and inter- 
change of rights which exists between States under 
one Constitution. That which makes the South 
restless and discontented is, that it has disease in 
its bowels. And that disease will not be cured by 
separation. It will still be there. The pains of the 
Southern people, their pangs, their cravings, their 
wants, are constitutional and organic ; and if you 
separate yourselves from them, you will grow rich 
and they poor. Will they like poverty any better be- 
cause they are a separate nation ? If you do their 
trading, they will still say that you get rich by cheat- 
ing them. 

Their slaves will not be any more contented or 
industrious or profitable. Riches are said to make 
to themselves wings and fly away ; and, changing the 
figure, such riches as these make to themselves feet 
and run away ! They will be as peripatetic then as 
now. And you will be less inclined to return them, 
while their owners will be more angry if you do not. 
The causes of jangling will be greatly increased. The 
edges of the two nations will be like the edges of two 
saws, and there will be a perpetual tearing and gash* 
ing of each other. Do you not know what frets there 
always are on the borders of two nations that are at 
variance with each other ? Do you not know how 
many living lines of painful light shoot back into the 
body politic under such circumstances ? And if you 
bring together the edges of two governments made 



ENERGY OF ADMINISTRATION DEMANDED. 1G5 

from this nation, do you suppose the scam will be a 
seam of peace ? It will be like the coming together 
of two opposing rivers, that chafe and cast up their 
foamy waves upon each other. You will not get 
peace by separation. 

Nor is that all. Separation would not stop with 
the North and South. There would be in the end, 
under the precedent established by the division of this 
country into two governments, other divisions. Am- 
bitious men would seek perpetually to histitute new 
governments ; for every new government involves 
the necessity of more offices, and gives a chance for 
more ambitious men ; and if you should consent to 
separation, you would put a premium upon baleful 
ambition. The result would be the Pacific govern- 
ment, the Atlantic government, one or more grand 
Middle governments, and the Southern government. 
You would bring Central Europe into the midst of 
this nation. 

Now consider whether a Northern, a Southern, a 
Middle, and a Western government would make for 
peace,- — for this is the question that I am arguing; 
whether the recognition or permission of this re- 
bellion, and the allowing it to solidify into a sepa- 
rate government, would bring you peace. It would 
result in the institution of many governments. What 
has been the effect of dividing Europe into ten or 
fifteen governments ? Every single nation is obliged 
to watch and be watched. Every frontier of each one 
is lined with fortified cities and forts. Every nation 
is obliged to support a standing army. Look at 
France, with her half a million of paid men ; look at 
Prussia, with her hundreds of thousands of paid men ; 



166 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

look at Austria, broken down by the waste of the 
ulcer of an army ; look at Italy, that is obliged to 
expend her nascent energy in the maintenance of a 
gigantic standing army. Were this nation to be 
divided, the South would support its hundred and 
fifty thousand men, the North would support its two 
hundred and fifty thousand men, and the great Middle 
government would support its three hundred thou- 
sand men, as standing armies. If this country should 
be divided into five separate national governments, 
they would require a million men for their standing 
armies, in order to maintain their respective rights. 

What has been the history of armies in this coun- 
try ? Twenty-five thousand troops — ridiculous hand- 
ful ! — have answered, for the last fifty years, the na- 
tional exigencies of these United States of America. 
Split this continent into different nations, and a mil- 
lion men would not be enough to protect them in 
their rights. 

Many men say, " this war, this fighting of 
brethren, is terrible ! Why not let the South go, 
and bring peace ? " As if that would bring peace ! 
As if that were not the way to touch the earth and 
bring armed men from every league of the soil ! I 
tell you, separation is preparation for endless standing 
armies and future wars ; and if you want peace, you 
must fight ! 

There is one other consideration in respect to this 
question of peace. If we were to recognize the Con- 
federate States as a separate nation, we should speed- 
ily bring upon ourselves that evil which, from the 
earliest days of this government, our wisest men have 
feared, — the intrusion of European politics. The 



ENERGY OF ADMINISTRATION DEMANDED. 167 

design of the South is no longer disguised. They 
mean, as soon as they shall have established them- 
selves as a separate nation, to thrust out their hands 
westward, and clutch more territory, and erect in 
Central America a vast slaveholding empire. Now 
the Spanish, the French, and the English governments 
have interests involved in such movements, and in the 
event of the success of the South they would have a 
right, as they would have a purpose, to interfere. And 
as soon as they had a right to put their foot on this 
continent, and to make our interior affairs a part of 
their affairs, they would never lack an excuse for 
maintaining this right. Thus far, what has been-called 
*' the Monroe Doctrine " has been maintained in this 
land ; but separate the North and the South, and let 
the South carry out its schemes of aggression, and 
the right of intrusion by European monarchies is es- 
tablished beyond peradventure. And with so fair a 
field as this continent partly within their grasp, they 
will not easily abandon their advantages. 

YI. This government should be maintained in this 
whole land in its original integrity, because, in God's 
providence, it seems destined to have a great influence 
upon that greatest national calamity and sin, slavery. 
This government has no right directly to interfere 
with the institution of slavery ; nor do I know of any 
man, called to exercise the functions of the govern- 
ment, who believes it expedient to do so. For myself, 
I have not hesitated to avow that we have no right 
politically, or by the hand of government, in time of 
peace, to interfere with the institution of slavery in 
any State where it exists by the laws of that State. 
We not only have no right, but we have no disposi- 



1G8 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

tion to do it. But that is not saying that we have 
no right morally to influence the minds of men. It 
is not tantamount to saying that a government based 
on a free constitution will not have an indirect ten- 
dency to liberty, and gradually modify, and finally 
destroy slavery. For a government administered in 
the spirit of a free constitution is like a law of na- 
ture that acts silently through long periods, and that, 
though not decisive at any single period, is in the end 
YQry effective. This is the secret reason now avowed 
of the rebellion that exists in this land. It is said by 
the South that slavery cannot flourish in these United 
States- as they at present exist. But for that very 
reason let us hold to the Constitution most rigidly. 
While in its infancy this nation has been unable 
to resist the institution of slavery, it has done much 
to influence it. And the time has come when it 
will exert, not only a legitimate, but a designed in- 
fluence upon it. The Constitution, when our fathers 
formed it, was not meant to be an instrument for the 
perpetuation of slavery. What are called the com- 
promises of it were never intended to ratify slavery. 
They were merely expedients to maintain unity and 
peace until other elements of popular sentiment and 
laws and institutions should work a legitimate and 
gradual end of slavery. It was then understood that 
our Constitution was to be single in object ; not with 
a hidden danger, a contrariety of institution, within 
it. At last we have come to that period when the 
original intent of that instrument will be carried out, 
and when it is felt against slavery and for freedom. 
And that is the secret reason of the rebellion of 
the South. Politicians saw that under the Consti- 



ENERGY OF ADMINISTRATION DEMANDED. 169 

tution slavery must decrease, and liberty must in- 
crease. We see it, too ; and therefore we say that 
we have a right, according to the original compact, 
accoi:ding to the spirit of the Constitution, in the most 
legal and equitable manner, to abate now, and finally 
to do away, that curse and pest, slavery. 

While speaking of slavery, let me interject a remark 
or two. I cannot but think that the progress of this 
war is to have, in the providence of God, a most 
remarkable influence upon the existence of this insti- 
tution. The subject is so vast, it is so intricate, and 
there are so many contingencies connected with it, 
that it is hazardous to make prophecies respecting it ; 
but one thing is apparent : that you cannot march 
columns of freemen straight through these rebellious 
States on a mission of liberty, and for the maintenance 
of a free Constitution, and leave no trace behind. I 
do not believe in marching an army through the 
South to set the slaves free, unless it is required as a 
war measure. I do not believe in the doctrine of 
insurrections, either for the whites or the blacks. I 
do not believe. we are called to any such work as 
that of inciting insurrections among the slaves. It 
would ruin the cause of the slave. Not until we are 
prepared to defend him by the whole power of the 
government -should he be encouraged to free him- 
self. But, on the other hand. Southern men, having 
the institution of slavery in their midst, have been 
foolish enough to provoke a conflict in which we are 
bound, by justice, by law, by oath, by everything that 
we hold sacred, to maintain the government of this 
land ; and it is impossible for us to do that without 
producing, whether we mean it or not, a prodigious 



170 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

influence upon the tenure of property in man. When 
this war ceases, the foundations of slavery will be 
much weakened, if not undermined. Not because we 
go to work on purpose to destroy it, but because we 
cannot maintain the Constitution and the government, 
and not weaken or undermine it. 

Suppose slavery should come peremptorily to an 
end, do you suppose murder and riot and bloodshed 
would take place in the South ? What ! do you say 
that men who do not murder now that they are in 
bondage and oppression, would murder if they were 
set free and had their rights given to them ? Is it 
sound reasoning to say that men who, when you 
goad them with aggravating injuries, do not murder, 
would become angry when the wrongs are righted, 
and revenge themselves upon their benefactors ? Will 
kindness and justice make men do worse things than 
cruelty and injustice ? Freedom is safer, ten thousand 
times, for white and black, than oppression. 

But it is supposed that, if the slaves were to be sud- 
denly emancipated, a black deluge would pour into 
our Free States, and come in^ competition with our 
laborers. No. The climate is against it. Besides, 
once let there be emancipation and free labor at the 
South, and there would not be laborers enough for 
the quickened industry that would follow.- The South- 
ern States would demand all the free colored men at 
the North. " Nothing would empty Canada, New Eng- 
land, and the Middle States of colored people so quick 
as having free colored labor normal and universal 
in the South. The warm latitudes are the natural 
home of the Africans. They flourish there, and no- 
where else. In cold latitudes consumption and other 



ENERGY OF ADMINISTRATION DEMANDED. 171 

diseases carry them off. Natural laws are against 
them here. But in the South they thrive wonderfully. 
Let labor be free on the plantation, and the pro- 
prietor would derive more advantage from his work- 
men. If emancipation should take place, instead of 
the North being overwhelmed by hordes of colored 
people, the North would have fewer ; and the South 
would require more, because a system of free labor 
requires more hands than servile labor. 

I need not protract these remarks to a greater 
length. Wliatever view you please to take, our duty 
and our interest are the same. Since, in the provi- 
dence of God, without fault of our own, and without 
our wish, the wrath of man has been permitted to 
bring to pass this issue and this war, our duty is, first, 
to meet manfully the issue, and, second, to strike, not 
three times, but seven. Cut short this work in right- 
eousness. There can be no poUcy so disastrous, it 
seems to me, as one of temporizing, tantalizing war- 
fare. The hearts of the people are united. The 
prostration of industry has given the masses nothing 
to do. We have the men, the means, and the dispo- 
sition. We have the right hand of empire on our 
side. The power of God rests upon the feehngs of 
our people. There is a sacred enthusiasm pervading, 
the whole North. And now, when the fire of patriot- 
ism is burning at its full height, is the time to mani- 
fest the might of this government, and crush out the 
rebellion that tlireatens our very existence as a free 
people. 

My friends, we stand just on the edge of a conflict. 
It is a new thing for us ; but I know not why we 
should not have an occasional experience of this kind. 



172 FEEEDOM AND WAR. 

What nation on the globe has been as exempt as we 
from civil war ? Since England had a history, how 
many, many times has she been deluged, in all her 
fields, with civil war. And is there a nation known 
that is more harmonious within than England ? Eng- 
land and Ireland are not very consonant, but they 
never had very much fighting together. There is too 
much water between them. But England and Scot- 
land were always fighting each other ; and they are 
now joined firmer than two hands clasped. You can- 
not make civil war between them. And do you say 
that, if there is war in this country, there must be 
everlasting dissensions between the North and the 
South ? How many times has France been against 
France ; and when was France more united than 
now ? How many hundreds of times has Italy been 
against Italy ? How many times have misguided, am- 
bitious men risen up to subvert her interests ? How 
many times have her separate States been arrayed 
against each other in war ? And now Italy has as- 
serted her power, and there is but one glorious opinion, 
and her people love as if the sword of brother had 
never struck brother within her borders. It is a sad 
thing to have civil war ; but let no man say that there 
can be no peace nor harmony between the two sections 
of this country after they have been engaged in bloody 
conflict. Every nation in the world gives the lie to 
the assertion. There is not a people on the earth that 
has not had internal conflicts, and that has not been 
as harmonious after them as though they had never 
taken place. 

And when these evils which are the cause of the 
mischiefs which we are experiencing, when this poison 



ENERGY OF ADMINISTRATION DEMANDED. 173 

of death which exists in our national system shall 
have been done away, I think there will be nothing 
more to breed civil wars among us ; and this grea't 
nation will move forward in an era of peace. 

Let us do the work of to-day, and leave the morrow 
to God. Let us do that which ought to be done, and 
God will take care of the consequences. 



VIII 



MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION* 



" And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see 
the carcass of the Hon ; and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey- 
in the carcass of the lion." — Judges xiv. 8. 




iJAMSON was on an errand of love. He was 
interrupted by a lion, which he slew ; for 
love is stronger than any lion. He gained 
his suit ; but, alas ! everything went by con- 
traries thereafter. The woman \fhose love was at 
first sweeter to him than honey, betrayed him. She 
was his lion. Whereas, on his way to her he found 
that bees had possession of the real lion's carcass, and 
had filled it with honey. And so, in the end, the lion 
was better to him than his wife. 

But how full of suggestions is this incident. Who 
would have looked for honey behind a lion's paws ? 
While he was yet roaring and striking at Samson, 
there seemed very little likelihood of_his finding 
a honeyed meal in him. But if lions bravely slain 
yield such food, let them become emblems ! The bee 
signifies industry, among all nations; and honey is 
the very ideal of sweetness. 

* Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 1861. 



MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 175 

To-day war is upon us. A lion is on our path. 
But, being bravely met, in its track shall industry set- 
tle, and we shall yet fetch honey from the carcass 
of war. You will not object, then, if, to-day, I bring 
you honey from this lion's body. 

At first, and to unhopeful souls, it would seem as 
if no day of Thanksgiving ever were so sadly planted. 
Nor will I undertake to persuade you that there are 
no evils to bemoan : there are many. But the evils 
are transient, superficial, and vincible ; the benefits 
are permanent, radical, and multiplying. 

Not long ago we were a united nation. Our in- 
dustry was bringing in riches as the tides of the 
ocean ; and no man could imagine the manhood of a 
continent whose youth was so august. 

Now, a line of fire runs through from east to west, 
and more than half a million men confront each other 
with hostile arms. Villages are burned ; farms are 
deserted ; neighbors are at bloody variance ; industry 
stands still through fifteen States, or only forges im- 
plements of war. The sky at night is red with camp- 
fires ; by day the ground trembles with the tramp of 
armies. Yet, amid many great and undeniable evils, 
which every Christian patriot must bitterly lament, 
there are eminent reasons for thankfulness, several of 
which I shall point out to you. 

I. Since we must accept this war, with all its un- 
deniable evils, it is a matter for thanksgiving that the 
citizens and their lawful government of these United 
States can appeal to the Judge of the universe and to 
all right-minded men, to bear witness that it is not a 
war waged in the interest of any base passion, but, 
truly and religiously, in the defence of the highest in- 



176 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

terests ever committed to national keeping. It is not, 
on our side, a war of passion ; nor of avarice ; nor of 
anger ; nor of revenge ; nor of fear and jealousy. 

We hold that the territory of these United States 
is common to all its inhabitants ; and is, not simply 
a possession, but a trust. Unless by the deliberate 
decision of the lawfully assembled people of these 
United States, constitutionally expressed, that terri- 
tory may neither be abandoned, alienated, nor parti- 
tioned. We hold it in trust for the Future. Is it the 
duty of New York to defend its territory against foes 
without, and evil men within, from the Lake to Mon- 
tauk Point ? Is it the duty of each New England 
State to defend every foot within its jurisdiction ? In 
like manner, and for the same reasons, but in greater 
force, it is the duty of all the States collectively to 
maintain the integrity of the national domain. It is 
not a question of whether we will or will not. By 
the appointed and appropriate methods of the Consti- 
tution that question has been taken from our hands. 
It is not subject to our volition. But we are bound, 
by that silent oath which every man assumes who 
comes to years of maturity as a citizen, to maintain 
inviolate the territory of these United States. 

It is the duty of the citizens, also, to stand up for 
their government ; to protect its just authority ; to 
maintain all its attributes ; and to see to it that its ju- 
risdiction is not restricted except by those methods 
which have been predetermined and agreed upon in 
that Constitution on which it stands. 

But in our particular case, the reasons for main- 
taining the government in all its ample jurisdiction 
are intensified beyond all measuring by the fact that 



MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 177 

the dangers which are threatening it arise, confessedly 
and undeniably, not from a perversion of the princi- 
ples of our Co'nstitution in our hands, nor from an 
oppressive administration of our government under 
these principles, but because a large body of men, 
gradually infected with new political doctrines, in 
their nature irreconcilable with the root principle of 
our government, have determined to overthrow it, 
that they may change its fundamental principles. 
We are not left to infer this. There is this merit in 
Southern politicians, that they are frank and open in 
the declaration of their pohtical doctrines. The best 
head among them is that of Mr. Stephens ; and he 
declares in the most unequivocal manner that the 
object of this rebellion is to introduce new principles 
in government. I shall read from him. 

" The new Constitution lias put at rest forever all tlie agitating 
questions relating to our peculiar institutions, — African slavery 
as it exists among us, — the proper status of the negro in our form 
of civilization." 

We shall see whether it has put them at rest " for- 



" This was the immediate cause of the late rupture and present 
revolution. Jefferson, in his forecast, had anticipated this, as 
the ' rock upon which the old Union would split.' He was right. 
What was conjecture with him, is now a realized fact. But 
whether he fully comprehended the great truth upon which that 
rock stood and stands, may be doubted. The prevailing ideas en- 
tertained by him, and most of the leading statesmen at the time of the 
formation of the old Constitution, ivere, that the enslavement of the 
African was in violation of the laws of nature ; that it was ivrong in 
principle, socially, morally, and politically." 

I thank him for that testimony. 

8* L 



178 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

" It was an evil they knew not well how to deal with ; but the 
general opinion of the men of that day was, that, somehow or 
other, in the order of Providence, the institution, would be evanes- 
cent and pass away. This idea, though not incorporated in the 
Constitution, was the prevailing idea at the time." 

This, you understand, is from the Vice-President 
of the Southern Confederacy, Alexander H. Stephens. 

" The Constitution, it is true, secured every essential guaranty 
to the institution while it should last, and hence no argument can 
be justly used against the constitutional guaranties thus secured, 
because of the common sentiment of the day. Those ideas, how- 
ever, were fundamentally wrong. They rested upon the assumption 
of the equality of races. This was an error. It was a sandy foun- 
dation, and the idea of a government built upon it, — when the 
♦ storm came and the wind blew, it fell.' Our new government is 
founded upon exactly the opposite ideas." 

I thank him for his candor. 

** Its foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth 
that the negro is not equal to the white man ; that slavery, suhordlna- 
tion to the superior race, is his natural and normal condition.^ 

What a corner-stone that is for a government ! 

" This, our new government, is the first in the history of the ivorld 
based upon this great physical, philosophical, and moral truth." 

And I will take the leave so far to interpolate his 
speech as to say that it will be the last ! Further on 
he says (it is such excellent reading that I cannot 
deny myself the pleasure of edifying you ) : — 

"May we not therefore look with confidence to the ultimate 
universal acknowledgment of the truths upon which our system 
rests ? It is the first government ever instituted upon principres 
in strict conformity to nature, and the ordination of Providence, 
in furnishing the materials of human society. Many governments 
have been founded upon the principles of certain classes ; but the 
classes thus enslaved were of the same race, and in violation of 
the laws of nature. Our system commits no such violation of 



MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCirATION. 179 

nature's laws. The negro by nature, or by the eurse against 
Canaan, is fitted for that condition which he occupies in our sys- 
tem. The architect, in the construction of buildings, lays the 
foundation with the proper material, — the granite, — then comes 
the brick or the* marble. The substratum of our society is made 
of the material fitted by nature for it, and by experience we know 
that it is the best, not only for the superior, but for the inferior 
race, that it should be so. It is, indeed, in conformity with the 
Creator. It is not for us to inquire into the loisdom of Ms ordinances, 
or to question them. For his own purposes he has made one race to 
differ from another, as he has made ' one star to differ from another 
in glory.' The great objects of humanity are best attained when 
conformed to his laws and decrees, in the formation of govern- 
ments as well as in all things else. Our Confederacy is founded 
upon principles in strict conformity with these laws. This stone 
which was rejected by the first builders ' is hecome the chief stone 
of the corner ' in our new edifice." 

These words, you will remember, -were spoken of 
the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was set at naught and 
rejected by the Jews, his countrymen ; and this Vice- 
President of the so-called Confederate States of 
America does not hesitate to declare that slavery 
stands, in, their new system, in the place that the 
Lord Jesus Christ holds in the Christian system ! It 
is the soul and centre of it. It is the. foundation and 
corner-stone. 

Dr. Smyth of South Carolina says : — 

"What is the difficulty, and what the remedy? Not in the 
election of Republican Presidents. No. Not in the non-execu- 
tion of the Fugitive Bill. No. But it lies 'back of all these. It 
is found in that Atheistic Red Republican doctrine of the Declaration 
of Indejyendence I Until that is trampled under foot, there can he 
no peace." 

Until either that or its antagonist is trampled under 
foot, truly there can be no peace ! Which is to go 
under time will show. 



180 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

This is, then, mark you, a rebellion, not against an 
oppressive administration, but against the fundamen- 
tal right of liberty in every man who has not forfeited 
it by crime. And it is declared, witligut equivoca- 
tion or disguise, that the rebellion and the war are 
brought upon us because our Constitution contains 
and our government will enforce great principles 
of equity. The people of this nation are aroused 
to defend their Constitution and their government, 
not simply because they are assailed ; but — as if 
Providence meant to make this conflict illustrious 
in the annals of the world — because they are as- 
sailed in those very respects in which they embody 
the latest fruits of Christianity and the latest attain- 
ments of modern civilization. The very things that 
belong to our age, in distinction from every age before 
it, are the things that are singled out and made the 
objects of attack. We would defend our Constitution 
at any rate ; but when it is charged with the noblest 
principles as if they were crimes, it appeals for its 
defence to every conscience and to every heart in this 
land with a solemnity as of the day of judgment. 

We are contending, not for that part of the Consti- 
tution which came in any way from Eoman law, and 
expressed justice as it had been developed in the iron- 
hearted realm ; but for that part which Christianity 
gave us, and whicJi has been working forth into laws 
and customs for eighteen hundred years. The princi- 
ple now in conflict is that very one which gives unity to 
history : it is that golden thread that leads us through 
the dark maze of nearly two thousand years, and con- 
nects us with the immortal Head of the Church, — the 
principle of man's rights based upon the divinity of 



MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 181 

his origin. Man from God, God a Father, and the race 
brothers, all alike standing on one great platform of 
justice and love, — the principle herein expressed has 
been the foundation of the struggle of eighteen hun- 
dred years ; and it has been embodied (thanks to Pu- 
ritan influence) in our Constitution. And this the 
exponent of Southern views plainly declares to be the 
point of offence in our government. He says, in im- 
measured terms, and with impious boldness, that it is 
to put down that principle that the South are up in 
arms to-day. 

Is it no cause for thanksgiving, then, that since we 
must war, God has called us to battle on ground so 
high, for ends so noble, in a cause so pure, and for 
results so universal ? For this is not a battle for 
ourselves alone. Every great deed nobly done is 
done for all mankind. A battle on the Potomac for 
our Constitution, as a document of liberty, is the 
world's battle. We are fighting, not merely for our 
liberty, but for those ideas that are the seeds and 
strength of liberty throughout the earth. There is 
not a man that feels the chain, there is not a man 
whose neck is stiff under the yoke, whether that man 
be serf, yeoman, or slave, who has not an interest in 
the conflict that we are set, in the providence of God, 
to wage against this monstrous doctrine of iniquity. 
There is honey in that lion ! 

II. It is matter of thanksgiving that we have not 
sought this war, but, by a long and magnanimous 
course, have endured sli.ame, and political loss, and 
disturbance the most serious, rather than peril the 
Union. Indeed, I am bound to say, that so strong 
was the national feeling with us, and so weak with 



182 FEEEDOM AND WAR. 

Southern men, that we made an idol of that which 
they trod under foot with contempt ; and hke idola- 
ters we threw ourselves down at the expense of our 
verj self-respect before our idol of the Union. I do 
not mean that it would have been wrong to have taken 
the initiative in a cause so sacred as that which impels 
this conflict; but if, where the end is right and the 
cause is sacred, it can also be shown that there has 
been patience, honest and long-continued eifort to pre- 
serve the right by peaceful methods, — by reasoning 
and by moral appeal, — and that that most desperate 
of all remedies, war, has been forced upon us (not 
sought, nor wished, but accepted reluctantly) by the 
overt act of the rebellious States, then this patience 
and forbearance will give an added lustre to our 
cause. 

I make these remarks out of respect to the Chris- 
tian Public Sentiment of Nations. Contiguity is 
raising up a new element of power on tlie globe ; 
and we do not hesitate to pay a just respect to the 
opinions and expectations which Christian men and 
philanthropists of other lands have entertained. We 
stand up boldly before the earnest peace men, the 
kind advisers, the yearning mediators, yea, and before 
the body of Christ, — his Church on earth, — and de- 
clare that this war, which we could not avert without 
giving up all that Christian civilization has set us to 
guard and transmit, cannot be abandoned without 
betraying every principle of justice, rectitude, and 
liberty. We do not fear search and trial before the 
tribunal of the Christian world ! In the end, those 
who should have given sympathy, but have given, 
instead, chilling advice and ignorant rebuke, shall 



MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 183 

confess their mistake, and own our fealty to God, to 
government, and to mankind. When it would liave 
swelled our sails, there was no breath of applause or 
sympathy. When the gale is no longer needed, and 
our victorious voyage is ended, we shall have incense 
and admiration enough! But, meanwhile, God has 
called us to war upon a plane higher than feet ever 
trod before. Though we did not seek it, but prayed 
against it, and with long endurance sought to avoid 
and avert it, and reluctantly accepted it ; now that it 
has come, it is infinite satisfaction to know that we 
can stand acquitted before the Christianity of the 
globe in such a conflict as this. There is honey in 
that lion ! 

III. It is a matter of thanksgiving that this war 
promises to solve those difficult problems which have 
baffled the wisdom of our wisest counsellors. 

There stands in the Vatican at Rome a marble 
prophecy of America, — a noble and heroic man, on 
either side a lovely son, but all, father and sons, 
grasped in the coils of a many-times-enfolding ser- 
pent, whose tightening hold not their utmost strength 
can resist ; and, with agonizing face, Laocoon looks 
up, as if his anguish said, " Only the gods can save, 
whose hate we have offended ! " 

So sat America. Around this government, and 
around the clustered States, twined the gigantic ser- 
pent of slavery. But here let the emblem stop. . Let 
us hope another history than that of the fabled Greek. 

Secret and open reasons many have made slavery 
a matter most unmanageable in our national councils. 
Had it been desired to test to the uttermost the power 
of republican institutions to sustain good government, 



184 FKEEDOM AND WAR. 

no other conceivable trial can be imagined that would 
do it as this has done, and as it will do it. It gathered 
lip into its coils almost every one of those unmanage- 
able elements, each one of which, alone, in other lands 
is counted a match for human wisdom. An inferior 
race, separated from us by physiological badges the 
most marked, and upon whom rested the added stig- 
ma of servitude ; a people who coming from a trop- 
ical land brought in the element of climate ; whose 
existence, in the relations of society and government, 
fed every one of the fiercer passions, touched but few 
of the moral sentiments, and these feebly, and educated 
men to idleness, avarice, lust, and pride of dominion, 
— these poor African bondmen, in all their helpless- 
ness and weakness, were yet able to pluuge this nation 
into troubles and difficulties, of caste, of race, of con- 
dition, of climate, and of ambitious wealth, which the 
strongest and the wisest knew not how to heal or to 
endure. War seems likely to clear up the questions 
that Politics could not manage. 

By our organic law we were forbidden to meddle 
with local institutions, though they were injecting the 
national veins with poison. Though we saw that 
from these local institutions general and national in- 
fluences were going forth, yet our organic principle 
of government would not permit us to lay our hand 
upon them. Neither could we bring to bear, for their 
suppression, in any ample degree, the moral forces by 
which other evils were met. No public sentiment in 
the North could make itself felt upon slavery : partly 
because no public sentiment can ever be transported 
from one section to another, — for ideas may travel, 
but influences must be developed among the people 



MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 185 

on whom they are to act, — and partly because of the 
ignorance that prevailed, and must always prevail, 
among the common people where slave institutions 
exist. There was also a sectional pride, a sensitive 
jealousy, that must have prevented access to the 
South of any moral influence, unless it had been 
high, pure, and commanding. But the North had 
no such moral sentiment. The antislavery feeling 
of the North has always lacked unity. The whole 
North, by the insidious influences of commerce, of 
politics, and of sectarian rehgion, has been divided 
into tln-ee principal sections : the lowest, composed 
of those that were either indifferent to slavery or 
who favored it ; the next, and most numerous, com- 
posed of those who, believing it to be an evfl, deemed 
themselves bound by political considerations, and by 
commercial interests, to forbear meddling with it; 
and the last, composed of the antislavery men of 
the North. These have been so divided among 
themselves, and so intolerant of each other's doc- 
trines, that they may be said to have expended as 
much strength against each other as they have unit- 
edly exerted against slavery itself. What pubHc sen- 
timent could be hoped from such a condition of the 
community, that would have authority, or even influ- 
ence, in the South ? 

And so we were drifting every year ; the North, 
partly from the force of moral considerations, but 
even more from the amazing folly and arrogance of 
Southern political management, growing more and 
more consolidated for liberty ; and the South, chang- 
ing all its original political doctrines, and carrying 
down, with fatal gravitation, the conscience of the 



186 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

Church and the convictions of a feebre ministry, was 
becoming every year more determined for slavery. 
Thus each was having less and less influence with 
the other. 

It has pleased God, by the very infatuation of this 
gigantic evil, rudely to dash these two sections to- 
gether. That out of this conflict liberty will come 
triumphant we do not for one moment doubt. That 
we see the beginning of national emancipation we 
firmly believe. And we would have you firmly to 
believe it, lest, fearing the loss of such an opportu- 
nity, you should over-eagerly grasp at accidental 
advantages, and seek to press forward the consum- 
mation by methods and measures which, freeing you 
from one evil, shall open the door for innumerable 
others, and fill our future with conflicts and immedi- 
cable trouble. 

Good men in Great Britain expect us to make a 
Decree of Universal Emancipation. Had England, 
either by her government, or by the unmistakable 
language of the Christian public, given the South to 
understand that there could be no possible sympathy 
or help for them from slave-hating England in their 
nefarious rebellion, we do not believe that this con- 
spiracy against human rights would ever have taken 
its present terrible proportions. Whether England 
meant it or not, she has influenced the South power- 
fully in its attack against the Federal Government, 
and in its determination to establish republican insti- 
tutions upon the principle of slavery. And this mis- 
fortune is not remedied by the condition upon which 
good men in England have been pleased to promise 
their sympathy, — namely, that our government, as- 



JIODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 187 

suming and usurping the proper power of the States, 
should pronounce a decree of universal emancipation, 
and convert this struggle into a war only for liberty 
to the- African. It was not by England's sympathy 
that we became independent ; it was not by her ad- 
vice that we have grown to be her equal among the 
nations of the world ; and we shall be able to settle 
our present troubles without her sympathy or succor. 
I am not so ungenerous as to cherish unkind feelings 
against the stock from which I am proud to have 
come. I am not surprised that the English nation, 
seldom able to understand foreign ideas and institu- 
tions, should be ignorant of the structure and nature 
of our government. We have been prepared, unfor- 
tunately, for such a course by her past conduct. The 
literature of England has been a fountain of liberty 
to Europe and the world; but the government of 
England, more than any other on the globe, has 
frowned upon nations struggling for liberty, and sub- 
sidized the despots that were seeking to crush them. 
It is a matter of thanksgiving to God, that we are not 
placed in a condition where our success depends upon 
her succor. Let England abide at home and twirl 
her million spindles, and web the globe with her fab- 
rics. She will not be a helper, but she shall be a 
spectator. In the quick-coming end, when all our 
troubles are settled, she will not then ungenerously 
withhold from us her admiration. When by actions 
and results we have proved ourselves worthy of those 
doctrines of human rights which God has intrusted 
to our advocacy and defence, in common with her, she 
shall give us, not, as now, ignorant advice, but, though 
late, a full measure of praise. Meanwhile, we shall 
trust in God and do without England. 



188 FEEEDOM AND WAR. 

It cannot be denied that this recommendation of 
immediate universal emancipation falls in with the 
Northern popular impulse. The evils of slavery have 
augmented to such a degree, the perils which it brings 
around our government have been now so strikingly- 
revealed, that it is not surprising that men should 
desire at one blow to end the matter. If the Constitu- 
tion of these United States, fairly interpreted, gives us 
the power to bring slavery to an end, God forbid that 
we should neglect such an opportunity for its exer- 
cise. But if that power is withheld, or can be exer- 
cised only with the most doubtful construction, — by a 
construction which shall not only weaken that instru- 
ment, but essentially change its nature, withdrawing 
from the States local sovereignty, and conferring 
upon Congress those rights of government which have 
thus been withdrawn from States, — then will not only 
slavery be destroyed, but with it our very govern- 
ment. How far our government, by a just use of its 
legitimate powers under the Constitution, can avail 
itself of this war to limit or even to bring slavery to 
an end, is matter for the wisest deliberation of the 
wisest men. If there be in the hand of the war- 
power, as John Quincy Adams thought there was, a 
right of emancipation, then let that be shown, and, in 
God's name, be employed. But if there be given to 
us no right by our Constitution to enter upon the 
States with a legislation subversive of their whole 
interior economy, not all the mischiefs of slavery, and 
certainly not our own -impatience under its burdens 
and vexations, should tempt us to usurp it. This 
conflict must be carried on through our institutions, 
not over them. Revolution is not the remedy for 



MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 189 

rebellion. The exercise on the part of our govern- 
ment of unlawful powers cannot be justified, except 
to save the nation from absolute destruction. 

The South, like an immense field of nettles, has 
been overrun with the pestilent heresies of State 
rights. Because our hands are stinging with these 
poisonous weeds, we shall be tempted inconsiderately 
to go to the opposite extreme, and to gather up the 
diffused powers of the State and consolidate and cen- 
tralize them in the National Government. We must 
not forget that, while a government of confederated 
States sprang up, as it were, accidentally, it was yet 
one of those divine accidents which revealed the 
strongest form of government yet known to the world. 
No central government can ever take the place of 
State governments. No central heart could ever 
drive life-blood to the extremities of this vast empire. 
If all the myriad necessities and ever-growing inter- 
ests of this continent are to be cared for ; if the 
extremest State along the Russian frontier of the 
Northwest, or the southernmost one that neighbors 
Mexico, or the lacustrine States of the North, are all 
equally and alike to experience the benefits of good 
government, it must be by maintaining unimpaired 
in all its beneficence the American doctrine of the 
sovereignty of local government, except in those ele- 
ments which have been clearly and undeniably trans- 
ferred to the Federal Government. 

Slavery is our present evil and danger, but it is 
not the only danger ; and we •firmly believe that it 
has passed its crisis, and is running to its end. We 
are not to forget that Future which rises before the 
prophetic vision, with promises of millennial glory. 



190 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

And yet every promise has its sliadow. With every 
benefit there is a corresponding danger. When 
slavery shall have wasted away, we shall not then be 
a nation without dangers. Foes lie concealed from 
us, but ready to spring from unsuspected ambush. 
The human heart' is the great human enemy. Law- 
less passions are the State's perpetual danger. De- 
stroy slavery, and you have not destroyed depravity. 
What is slavery but one way in which lust and ava- 
rice and ambition and indolence have sought to 
enthrone themselves? Destroy this throne, and will 
you have destroyed the occupants ? In the vast in- 
crease of States along the Pacific bounds, in the 
numerous brood' of States born in that continental 
intervale which the Mississippi drains, in- the older 
States along the Atlantic coast, are there to be no 
more gigantic strides of ambition, no factions, no in- 
furiated military struggles, no overgrown people drunk 
with prosperity ? The ocean will sooner cease to be 
swept by storms, than this nation to be agitated by 
the passions of men. And while we array against 
these, in private, the influences of religion, the forces 
of education, and all the ameliorating influences of 
civilization, the nation itself will still need some 
armor of defence. That armor is the Constitution. 
Take that away, and this nation goes down into the 
field of its conflicts like a warrior without armor. 

This is not a plea against immediate emancipation ; 
it is but a solemn caution, lest, smarting from wrong, 
we seize the opportunity inconsiderately to destroy 
one evil by a process that shall leave us at the mercy 
of all others that time may bring. 

Does any one ask me whether a law or a constitu- 



MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 191 

tion is superior to the original principle of justice 
and of liberty? No; when law and constitution 
necessarily violate them, let them be changed ; but 
when morality and justice and liberty may be wrought 
out by the constitution, be that method chosen. 
Besides, plighted faith is itself in the nature of a 
sacred moral principle. The Constitution of these 
United States stands upon the plighted faith of all 
the several States over which it has authority. When 
we cannot abide by our promises, then in methods 
expressly provided we must withdraw the pledge and 
agreements, and stand apart, not only as separate 
peoples, but under new governnaents. 

These reasonings are all the more imperative be- 
cause we are not shut up to doubtful constructions 
or violent methods for the suppression of slavery. 
We have seen its worst periods. The strength of its 
evil manhood is gone. Henceforth it is a decrepit 
giant, growing daily more infirm. That it has been 
stricken with infatuation is shown by that war which 
it has provoked, and which will carry emancipation 
where slavery meant to secure new strength. What 
the pen of the legislator could not do, that the sword 
wsliall do. The South have brought upon themselves 
what we never could have thrust upon them. There 
never was a more memorable instance of condign pun- 
ishment following at the heels of transgression. The 
torch which they kindled for our destruction shall 
light the slaves to liberty. The true policy for slavery 
was to have retired their system from public view ; 
but they have obtruded it, rather, with singular 
impertinence. They should have hidden it ; but they 
have cast it before them as a very bulwark. They 



192 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

should have shielded it ; but they have made it, 
rather, a shield for themselves, and compelled the 
armies of the United States, in striking at rebellion, 
to strike throvigh the shield of slavery. Less than 
any other system would it bear disturbance ; and 
yet they have brought an earthquake upon it. We 
have not destroyed the government that we might 
strike slavery ; they have sought to destroy the gov- 
ernment that they might establish slavery ; and if 
in re-establishing again the government, the sword 
shall strike off the shackle, it will be but one more 
illustration of that overruling Providence by which 
the wrath of man is made to praise God. Once more 
the stars on our immortal flag are stars of liberty. 
"Wherever our armies go, emancipation goes. Con- 
fiscation is the punishment of rebellion, and when 
applied to men, confiscation means liberty. 

What do we behold ? Men, not in scores, but in 
hundreds and thousands, set free by no act of their 
masters, and by no rescript of mere political author- 
ity, are held by our government. Only six months 
ago these men, women, and children were under the 
local law in the South ; but now they have gone out 
of the hands of their local masters, and our govern-, 
ment holds them. And how does it hold them ? * Are 
they men or chattels ? Where will you find a law or 
a constitutional clause that gives the United States 
a right to look upon its subjects — human beings, 
endowed with intelligence, and with immortality be- 
hind that intelligence — as anything else than men? 
You may call them "contraband," — you may with 
dexterity call them ingenious or evasive names, but 
the Southern law that said Slave ! is broken ! Slaves 



MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 193 

in the possession of the government of these United 
States can be nothing else than men. They are 
emancipated. There are to-day thousands and thou- 
sands of emancipated men in the possession of this 
government, and it is bound to treat them m some 
sort, if not as citizens, yet as men. 

And consider what will be the effect of the dis- 
turbance as our armies advance ; — what swarms 
will rise up so soon as liberty is given them. In 
so vast a system as that of slavery, so loosel^r com- 
pacted, and so subject to fevers and inflammations, 
the reasons of the very disturbances of it, of the 
interruption of the occupations of the slaves, must 
break into their own darkened minds. The drilling 
of them for service, the putting them to the erection 
of fortifications, the inuring them to work for pur- 
poses of manhood, — all these things are preparing 
them for freedom. 

But that is not all : the South has consented to pay 
a premium of about two hundred millions of dollars 
for the encouragement of free-labor cotton ! Never 
was there such liberality since the world began ! They 
have said to the world, "If you will only outbid us 
in the market, we will give you the opportunity. We 
have made our profits out of cotton, but we will 
agree to tie up our hands for two years, and let 
others take the two hundred millions of dollars, and 
raise the cotton." So the West Indies have planted 
cotton ; India is raising it ; China is raising it ; they 
are planting cotton on the shores of Africa ; and all 
the world has become a cotton-field, because there is 
a premium offered upon cotton that industry cannot 
but be interested in. And the thunder that rocks us 



194 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

is the calm that raises cotton in other lands. There 
seems a peculiar beauty in that justice by which 
since cotton on these shores invoked the African from 
Africa, cotton on the African shores shall reach out 
its soft white hand and strike off the shackle on these 
shores. As cotton has made slavery, so cotton shall 
cure it. 

Let me, then, present, as another cause for the 
most profound thanksgiving, the fact that, although 
all the steps and details, of the process by which 
emancipation is to be accomplished are not yet appar- 
ent, we see the direction in which it is coming, and 
towards which it is travelling. War will do what 
peace could not ; and what war leaves • unaccom- 
plished must soon come to pass from commercial 
reasons. For the first time since our Revolution, 
good men see the end of slavery near at hand! 

Once more. 'When this great struggle is passed, 
it will lay the foundations of a peace firmer than 
we have ever had before. First, because it must 
extinguish that pestilent heresy of the absolute sov- 
ereignty of individual States. We are not thirty 
crowned sovereigns sitting in council together; we 
are thirty united States whose general union and 
whose local independence are both and alike distinct 
and immutable. The government cannot take away 
the local authority of the States, and the States may 
not usurp or resist the Federal Government in its 
proper sphere. Slavery is the burglar, but absolute 
State sovereignty is the crevice into which the pow- 
der was sifted that was expected to explode this 
government. The government must be made bur- 
glar-proof by stopping up all such seams. 



MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 195 

111 the next place, this conflict, wlien ended, will 
bring the North and the South into a better mutual 
knowledge and respect. They have hitherto met 
chiefly in two places ; at the watering-place, and in 
Congress. The South have come hither to such 
places as Saratoga and Newport. The people who 
congregate at our fashionable watering-places are not 
always the best exponents of Northern society. The 
other place where the North and the South met was 
in the halls of Congress : and Heaven forbid that it 
should be thought that the men hitherto there have 
fairly represented Northern virtue or courage ! But 
now we have sent a representative body that we are 
quite willing should march through the South to tell 
them what Northern men are, and what Northern 
men can do. By the time our army has gone through 
the Southern States, there will be a change in public 
opinion there, with respect to the manhood, the 
courage, the power, and the resources of the North. 
They have not respected us. They have not under- 
stood our civihzation. Such is the inevitable condi- 
tion of the men that slavery breeds, that they cannot 
understand the patience and forbearance of Christian 
civilization ; and the thing that will best inoculate 
them with a proper appreciation of these matters is 
the armed hand. And when they find that we are 
courageous, a match, and more than a match, for 
them in arms, from that moment they will respect 
us. And when there is more respect in the South 
for the North, there will be a better chance for peace. 
There are likewise causes of rejoicing for the provi- 
dential events that have accompanied this struggle 
thus far. There have been years when, if this war 



196 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

had broken out,. I know not how we should have 
maintained it. I shudder when I look back upon 
the condition in which the North has been. If ten 
years ago this struggle had been forced upon us, our 
foes would have been of our own household. But 
what a journey have we made in ten years ! Not the 
distance from the Red Sea to the promised land was 
half so long as that over which we have passed. A 
great change has within that period taken place in the 
public sentiment of the North, and in the unity of 
good men. Since 1850 we have been going through 
a wonderful transformation. And not until we were, 
in some sense prepared for it did God permit the 
evolution of the causes that brought to pass this 
crisis. And now it is a matter of thanksgiving that 
we are an undivided North. I do not mean that 
there are no reptiles that lurk and hiss ; but I mean 
that they no sooner put their head above the earth 
than they are scotched ! The North stands like the 
old Apostle who, when he threw fuel on the fire, 
found a viper fastened on his hand. When the spec- 
tators saw it, they thought that he was only an escaped 
criminal, and that he would die ; but when he shook 
the serpent off, and suffered no harm, they thought 
he was a god. And so the North, standing by its 
fiery war, and casting on fuel, finds upon its hand 
vipers ; but it shakes them off and suffers no harm. 
We are a united, infrangible, indivisible North ; and 
just as sure as the sun rises and sets, we shall be 
victorious. 

Nor are we to forget that as the stars in their 
courses fought against Sisera, as it were prefiguring 
the working of natural laws for God's purposes 



MODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 197 

among men, so great agencies of nature have been, 
in this conflict, co-operating with us. Who of us that 
mourned and shuddered in the crisis of '57 knew that 
God was saying to us, " Take in your sails ; put your 
ship in order : a great hurricane is about to fall upon 
you?" Nevertheless, we did put the ship in good 
condition ; and now that the storm has fallen we un- 
derstand the warning. And never was* the North so 
well able to bear the pressure of war as now. Al- 
though individual men are failing, yet never was the 
North so rich, and so competent to carry on this con- 
flict as now. 

Nor was that all: it pleased God to say to the 
winds, that did not know the reason ; and to the rains, 
that knew not why ; and to the sun, that, travelling 
far and near, fulfils God's " purposes unknowingly, 
" Make the earth teem ! breed corn in every clod ! " 
And he that made the seven years of plenty to stand 
against the seven years of famine in Egypt, made two 
years of superabundance in our land, — for what? 
To take the crown from the head of cotton, and put 
it on the head of corn. And why ? Because this has 
been the pecuUar boast of the South: "Cotton is 
king, and by its power we will bring France, with her 
haughty Emperor, and England, with her needy me- 
chanics, to our terms; and tlien we will crush the 
North." We do not know what God is saying to us. 
I went through the corn-field, — ignorant soul that I 
was, — and heard the rustling of the leaves. I 
thought it was only the wind blowing through the 
corn, and I did not hear the messages. It was God 
speaking in a literature that was uninterpreted to me ^ 
then, but which now I understand. Every fifeld in 



198 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

the North lifted up its long sword-blades and pre- 
figured victorious arms ; and every wind that came 
said, " Liberty is coming ; emancipation is coming ; 
corn shall dethrone cotton ! " For now, just when 
manufacturing England would have required our 
ports to be opened, she happens to need our corn 
more than the cotton of the Southern States. She 
must feed her men before she gives their hands any- 
thing to do. We come nearer to keeping them from 
starving than the South does to clothing them. And 
what do we see in France ? The Emperor sits on his 
precarious seat, and finds it at present expedient to 
lay aside his prerogative of opening fresh budgets of 
expenses ; and offers to restrict himself, and to econo- 
mize and to save money in various ways ; while, if 
France had been in a condition of boundless pros- 
perity, she might have wished to have a finger in 
matters here. Thus France is obliged to cut down 
her army. So we have guaranties for peace there, 
and guaranties for peace in England ; and they will 
not stir to interfere with our affairs. This fight is 
to be fought out by ourselves. While preparations 
for this conflict have been going on, God has poured 

.money into our coffers, and taken it away from those 
that might use it to our harm. He is holding back 
France and England, and saying to all men and na- 
tions, " Appoint the bounds ! Let none enter the lists 
to interfere, while those gigantic warriors battle for 
victory I Liberty and God, and slavery and the Devil, 
stand over against each other, and let no man put 
hand or foot into the ring till they have done battle 

^unto death ! " Amen. Even so, Lord God Almighty. 
It is thy decree ! And it shall stand ! And when 



TilODES AND DUTIES OF EMANCIPATION. 199 

the victory shall come, not unto us, not unto us, but 
— in the voice of thrice ten thousand, and thousands 
of thousands of ransomed ones, mingling with thine 
earthly children's gladness — unto thee shall be the 
praise and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen. 



IX. 



THE CHURCH'S DUTY TO SLAVERY* 

" But Jesus called thejn unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of 
the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise 
authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you : but whosoever 
will be great among you, let him be your minister ; and whosoever will be 
chief among you, let him be your servant : even as the Son of man came 
not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for 
many.",— Matt. xx. 25 - 28. 




HEN Paul was sent by James, Peter, and 
John to the Gentiles, their only charge to 
him was that he should " remember the 
poor " ; and his only remark upon the 
charge was, that it was the very thing that he was 
always anxious to do. 

I have already spoken to you from this fact, basing 
upon it two statements : that the state of mind which 
is most completely, filled with a disposition to take 
care of the weak and the poor, and to employ one's 
gifts and strength in serving them, is the one best 
fitted to make known the real truth of the power of 
Christ and of the Gospel ; and that any system of 
polity which shall contain a sufficient provision for the 
weak and poor, will contain the very best provision, 

* January 12, 1862. 



THE CHURCH'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 201 

also, for the wise and the strong. We come, from a 
different side, and with different language, which I 
have to-night read in your hearing, to precisely the 
same practical results. 

This statement does not mean that society should 
be divided, and that there should be two classes : the 
educated, the intelligent, and the virtuous, on the one 
side, and the ignorant, the vicious, and the rude, on 
the other ; and that a preference should be given to 
the bottom over the top. It does not mean that being 
prosperous and wise and good is a fault, or that being 
poor and ignorant is a virtue. It does not mean that 
we should neglect men who are wise and strong, or 
that we should not be in sympathy with them. It 
does not mean that we should not do what we can to 
help them. It does not mean that we should not 
preach to them, and minister to them all elements 
of civil culture. It does not, on the other hand, mean 
that we are to have a moral preference for men simply 
because they are poor, as if that gave them special 
rights. In other words, we are not to reverse the old 
state of things, and crown the bottom at the expense 
of the top, just as all through the world, from the be- 
ginning to this time, the top has been crowned at the 
expense of the bottom. That would only be turning 
the old mistake bottom-side up.» 

It means only that as the spirit of Christianity is 
essentially the spirit of equitable love, and as it is not 
the love of attractiveness but of benevolence, and 
therefore augments and abounds in the ratio of the 
necessity of the object of it, rather than of his lova- 
bleness, so it should be strongest toward the neediest. 
We are always more tender of the sick than of the 

9* 



202 FREEDOM AND WAK. 

well : not because we hate the well, or are mdifferent 
to them ; but simply because the sick need most. 
And where benevolence is so developed as fully to be 
in sympathy with the lowest men, it is by that very 
fact so ample as to include all others. The best way 
to take care of the higher, is to take care of the lower. 
If you put yourself into such a Christian frame that 
you know how to endure the unlovely, how much 
more will you be in a condition to endure the lovely ! 
If you receive the grace of Christ into the soul with a 
potency that is adequate to the wants of the most un- 
deserving, how much more will it be adequate to the 
wants of the deserving ! 

And, in like manner, in respect to all institutions, 
and all means of propagating Christian influences, we 
do not mean to teach that they are to be constructed 
exclusively for the poor ; or that all churches, or 
religious societies, should specially or exclusively ad- 
dress themselves to the poor as a class ; but that all 
Christian institutions should, in their nature and ten- 
dency, conduce to the benefit of the lowest as well as 
of the highest. They should not be established for the 
benefit of any class, top or bottom. They should be 
as universal as the spirit whose name they take. 

And especially, in gauging their use of means, all 
Christian institutions* should, in spirit and in power, 
be competent to the wants of the lowest and of the 
neediest in society. 

Christians are called to love and to serve all men. 
Christian churches are not to pick the few and the 
fair, and serve them ; but every Christian church is 
to be in spirit competent to the wants of the highest 
and of the lowest alike. No Christian church is 



THE CHURCH'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 203 

wisely and well constituted that lias not provision for 
every condition of men, from the top of society to the 
bottom. The Christian Church is to be universal: 
not by geographical extent, but by moral adaptation to 
the wants of universal human nature. It is, then, to 
make distinctions in favor of no class. It is simply to 
have an average and universal moral power, that, 
being sufficient for the lowest, is, of necessity, suffi- 
cient for the highest. If these institutions are gauged 
to be sufficient for the wants of the higher natures 
only, they may be insufficient to reach down to the 
lowest ; while if they are gauged to the necessity of 
the least developed and the most necessitous, they 
will, in the nature of things, have all the more power 
upon the higher. Summer must have heat for the 
things that are most torpid. Of course, then, the 
easily excitable things will grow. The chickweed 
will sprout and grow with the thermometer at 45°. 
The cypress-vine and the tuberose require it to be at 
70° or 80°. Now, a summer fitted for the early 
plants, would leave the year half unblossomed ; but a 
summer that carries in its heart a warmth strong 
enough to call up the reluctant plants, will on its 
way to them of course wake up also the plants that 
begin to dream of waking even while the snow is on 
their eyelids. And so it must be with the heat of the 
Church. 

So much for the general statement. Let us make 
it more apparent by special applications. 

I. Churches that rule their pulpits to a preaching 
exclusively for the cultivated and refined, are out of 
harmony with the New Testament, and out of the 
legitimate sphere of Christianity. A church is not 



204 FEEEDOM AND WAE. 

necessarily a Christian church because it preaches 
Christianity ; for it is not the dogma or the doctrine 
that you preach, but the spirit in which you preach it, 
that constitutes Christianity in a church. A church 
that preaches sound doctrine all through, but that 
preaches it so that it is meat only for the few, and is 
not universal food, has gone aside from the Master. 
Preaching may be universal and yet refined. There 
is no necessary connection between rudeness and the 
wants of rude people. The heart is the universal 
medium. A man that is to the last degree cultured 
in thought and in language, a man that is polished to 
the last degree in manly excellence, may be accepta- 
ble to all men, so that he presents the universal letter 
of introduction, — the feeling that brings heart to 
heart, high and low ; for it is that that makes all men 
kindred. But, often, pulpits are made partial by a 
way of treating subjects that is partial and excluding. 
Ministers are wrongly taught : not on purpose, not 
willingly ; but from a wrong conception. The young 
preacher has inculcated upon him by those from 
whom he receives his instruction, a range of topics 
interesting to higher natures, but to no others. It is 
easy to select out of the Word of God themes which 
may be discussed with great profit to men who are 
accustomed to think, and to dwell much on such 
themes, but the. discussion of which is almost profit- 
less to others. A historic, a philosophic, a scholas^tic 
conception, even of a common theme, may put it 
out of the reach of the more uninstructed classes. 
Let a man discuss the love of Christ, not as a liv- 
ing, flaming fact made clear to the comprehension 
of every child, but as an abstract thing ; let him 



THE CHURCH'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 205 

consider the mode of loving, the potency of divine 
affections, and the relations of the emotions of love in 
man to the divine feeling and the divine government ; 
let him lift the subject up above the heart into the 
mind, and he will remove it beyond the range in 
which the common mind walks. As far as the benefit 
of the average classes of society is concerned, you 
might just as well preach in Greek as in abstract 
language. One is just as foreign to men's ordinary 
comprehension as the other. 

Language, too, may be employed for the sake of 
scholastic and Hterary finish, so as almost, if not quite 
to deaden the effect of what a man preaches. Tlie 
use of latinized words and periphrases in what is 
called elegant speaking and fine writing, is a common 
vice. There is a great tendency on the part of 
writers and speakers to avoid domestic words and 
colloquialisms, as they are called. 

Now, all words are pegs to hang ideas on ; and as 
a wooden peg in the hall, on which the father and the 
grandfather were accustomed to hang the coat and 
hat, is to the child's eye more beautiful than the 
most exquisite picture that could be hung on the 
wall, so the most common and familiar words are 
more powerful than any abstract and arbitrary ones. 

What does Jiome mean ? When you speak that word 
it is as if you struck a bee-hive, and a thousand bees 
begin to buzz and hum music in your mind. Father 
and another are words that children learn on the 
hearth and in the nursery. They are nursery and 
childhood companions ; and they do not cease to be 
companions in after Hfe. They are always linked 
with our early associations. And when you attempt 



206 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

to express the thought which belongs to father or 
mother, by saying " parent," you kill it. When you 
say " woman " you mean what the world has taught 
of woman ; but when you say " female," you mean 
what a fool might mean that does not know how to 
use language. 

The difference between one man and another in, the 
use of words is, that one uses familiar words, and 
uses them in their ordinary sense, and the other uses 
words that are not familiar, and uses them in a sense 
that is unusual. Some ministers use words in such 
a way that they flash, as it were, and wake men up, 
and give them feelings which they cannot account 
for. They pick out words that are adapted to the 
comprehension of their people, and employ them so 
that they shall have a meaning over and above the 
philosophical meaning. But there are thousands of 
ministers that charm men when they talk in private 
conversation, because they are sensible then, who are 
fools when tliey come to preach, — and not according 
to the Apostle's idea of the " foolishness of preach- 
ing," either. They say, " We are bound to bring our 
people up to us, and not to go down to them." I beg 
your pardon, you will honor yourselves by going 
down to them. No man need be ashamed to use the 
language of common life, for that is the language of 
power and eloquence. The man that knows how, 
like old Bunyan, like Baxter, and like South (scholar- 
ly as he was), to take the Saxon colloquial terms of 
the household, of the kitchen, of the parlor, of the 
nursery, of the field, where men live, and employ 
them in his preaching, is a powerful and eloquent 
preacher. These old, brawny, large-meaning words, 



THE CHUECH'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 207 

heavily laden with precious associations, are words of 
might. But how many of our preachers, for the sake 
of being literary, for the sake of being polished, step 
aside from the great highway of power in language, 
into the little lanes of exclusiveness, where there is 
no power ! 

And so of discussing questions foreign to men's 
lives and interests ; or, of discussing those that belong 
to their interests in a philosophical vein, in order to 
lift them up to the plane of the highest natures, thus 
lifting them up so high that the greatest number can- 
not see them. When men discuss questions foreign to 
the wants of the community, or discuss questions in 
such a way as to make them foreign to the wants of the 
community, the few, the very few, can go with them, 
but all the rest are unfed. How many congregations 
say, " Our minister is a dear man ; we love to have 
him come and see us ; his conversation in the family 
seems profitable ; the children all like him ; but 
somehow (and I suppose it is my fault) I cannot keep 
awake when he preaches." It is riot your fault. And 
I do not make myself an exception. If you come 
here and go to sleep under my preaching when the 
air is good, it is my fault, and not yours, that you do 
not keep awake. If, after people have listened to a 
minister, they say, " His preaching does not do me 
any good," do not let him excuse himself by saying 
that they are inattentive. I hold that the Gospel 
abounds in elements the most universally interesting 
of any that can be conceived of; and if a man stands 
in the sacred desk with all the resources of the Gos- 
pel, and speaks without interesting his hearers, it is 
because he does not know how to handle his tools. 



208 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

And all this exclusiveness that I have pointed out 
is the fault of the modern pulpit, and is especially 
the fault of the city pulpit. It is a world too genteel ; 
it is a world too refined ; it is a world too learned ; 
it has got up on stilts ; it thinks and talks in such 
philosophical and scliplarly language that the masses 
of the common people do not get anything from it. 
It does not come to the poor. The Gospel that- it 
dispenses is a Gospel kept for the dainty, for connois- 
seurs in Gospel matters. The modern pulpit is strong 
in learning, and in a noble devotion to higher 
natures ; but it is weak in that it clothes itself in 
such forms as to make it, by elective affinity, the 
organ of only the higher natures. The Apostles were 
selected just because they, could not do that. One is 
surprised when he examines the materials out of 
which the Apostles were made. I have wondered that 
the stuff for the Apostles was not imported from 
Athens. There were better men there. Those that 
were chosen were the poorest materials that, were ever 
hewn out into apostleship, or anything else official. If 
you take James, John, and Peter out of the Apostles, 
you have taken out all that left any record. Paul 
was added; he was an educated man, and he did 
more than all the others put together ; but of the 
original Apostles, with the exception of those three, 
it seems to me that the eight others (Judas being left 
uncounted) were material than which you can scarce- 
ly imagine any with less natural fitness and adapta- 
tion. Why did Christ select these men ? For the 
very reason that from their calling and position they 
did not know anything else, and could not learn any- 
thing else in their lifetime, than the simple things 



THE CHURCH'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 209 

taught them in the simplest language ; and, that, 
therefore, when they should speak, their words would 
go right home to their fellows, the poor and common 
people. Christ came to preach the Gospel to the 
mass of humanity, and they were poor. Christ came 
to lift up the world ; and it had all sunk down to the 
bottom of society. There were ten million men 
below the medium line where there was one above 
it. And to preach the Gospel, it was necessary to 
have men that were free from any temptation, in 
their teaching, to rise above the comprehension of 
the lower classes ; and the Apostles were selected 
accordingly ; and it was wise. And in later periods, 
those ministries that have been the most like them in 
their method of working, whether from necessity or 
choice, have been the most successful. There is no 
ministry that have been more successful, or that have 
raised up a better monument as the result of their 
labors, than the Methodist clergy. Why ? Not alone 
because they have had a consummate system of or- 
ganization, though that has helped a great deal ; not 
because they have had a certain lithe, elastic method 
of procedure, in not being limited and fixed, but kept 
roving from one place to another, which had some 
advantages to the early settlements, but disadvantages 
to the permanent churches : but because men of all 
pursuits and callings were appointed to preach. And 
as long as the Methodist Church felt willmg to preach 
among the poor and common people, so long they 
triumphed gloriously ; but in proportion as they get 
the spirit of preaching to the upper classes, and of 
building churches for them, their success diminishes. 
I think the Methodist churches are getting to be the 



210 FREEDOM AND WAE. 

most splendid churches. "We have got to take their 
places, and go down and take care of the poor. 
Somebody must do it. And I give warning to our 
Methodist brethren that if they are going to abandon 
that field there are enough to occupy it ; but that 
if they want to keep their glory, and transmit it to 
other generations, they must remember the poor. 
Be proud of that field. Take care of those that 
nobody else takes care of. Take heed to the bottom, 
and God will see that your love and fidelity shall 
work all the way up to the top. I do . not object to 
the Methodists' preaching to the most cultivated audi- 
ences : all I object to is, that they should lose a con- 
ception of the sacredness of human nature clear 
down to the bottom. 

The fault of the churches is not that they pro- 
vide for the wants of the higher, but that they do not 
provide in such a way as shall also meet the necessi- 
ties of the lower. We are providing for special class- 
wants, and leaving out the lower classes. A bucket 
whose bottom has dropped out will not hold water ; 
and a church whose poor have dropped out will not 
hold grace. 

II. Christian institutions must be gauged to the 
same dominant spirit. All Christian societies for 
spreading knowledge, all Christian societies for sus- 
taining ministers and missionaries, all Christian insti- 
tutions which are in the nature of propagating institu- 
tions, if they are in accordance with their Master, 
must go to the bottom, and, taking sides with the 
lowest, make everything consistent with that initial 
element. And if there is anytliing to be sacrificed 
anywhere, it must be among the strong and the high, 
and never among the low and the weak. 



THE CHURCH'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 211 

And this has been the battle of the day m which we 
live. In general assemblies, synods, and presbyteries ; 
in associations and local churches ; in tract societies 
and missionary societies, — in them all men have re- 
fused, for a quarter of a century, to go down to the 
low, to stand by them, and to declare a Gospel that 
was in sympathy with them, and would protect them, 
wha,tever came to anybody else. They have refused 
to bring the whole divine power of the Gospel to the 
rescue of the poorest and the lowest. 

The slave, in our time, has been God's touchstone 
of the nation, of its religion, and of its religious insti- 
tutions ; and these have been found grievously want- 
ing. They are coming right now, and coming right 
fast, but for the last twenty-five years they have been 
grievously wrong. The question has been of the con- 
fidence of " great and good men in the church, in the 
society, in the institution" ; of the opinions of "the 
most influential men." Prudential questions have 
been put before moral ones. Questions of the neces- 
sity of holding things together, of receipts and means, 
have too often ruled moral questions out. 

Ever since about the time when I entered public 
life, the question of religion for the African slave in 
our nation has been agitated. The substantial conflict 
of the times has been whether there was in the Church 
and Christian institutions (we knew there was in the 
Bible) a Christianity that dared to stand by the side 
of the slave, and say, " In the name of Jesus, that 
made us all of one blood, we demand justice, and 
education, and humaniiy, for the low, and for the 
lowest." And the churches have refused to demand 
it. The assemblies, and synods, and presbyteries, and 



212 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

■ associations, and tract societies, and missionary- socie- 
ties, have refused to do it. The Christianity of the 
age, for twenty-five years, has not had the strength to 
do it. These institutions were in connection with the 
educated, with the judicious, with the prudent, with 
the wealthy ; they belonged to the higher classes, and 
represented the average conscience and the average 
feeling of the higher classes ; and they were not will- 
ing to humble themselves, and go down to the bottom, 
and say, " God sent us first to the poor, and we must 
take care of them, whatever becomes of the others." 
If there had been a spirit large enough to take in the 
poor, there would have been a spirit large enough to 
evangelize this nation years and years ago. And war ; 
the rebellion which is the cause of the war ; the ruth- 
less destruction which it occasions ; the terrible gar- 
ment of blood that is threatened to be wrapped round 
and round the corse of this nation, — tliese things 
have come upon us because there was not salt enough 
to save us in the embodied religious institutions of 
our time. Now, shall we take no heed ? Shall these 
facts stare us in the face, and no man .note for the 
future ? 

III. That which is true of churches, and of Chris- 
tian institutions, is in like manner true of Christian 
public sentiment in this nation, in relation to the 
questions of our times. 

The American mind has hitherto sustained the 
relation of the most absolute selfishness in respect to 
the African, practically. We had a general sympathy 
for the poor and the oppressed up to about fifteen 
years ago ; and we talked of them on the Fourth of 
July, and prayed for them a good deal, up to about 



THE CHUKCirS DUTY TO SLAVERY. 213 

ten years ago. About ten years ago it came to be a 
little critical to pray that way. Men feared that it 
might be supposed that they meant to pray for the 
overturning of oppression on the plantation, when 
they meant to pray for its overturning two or three 
thousand miles off. Men, when they talked of open- 
ing the prison doors, meant the prison doors in Hin- 
dostan, in Japan, in Madagascar, in New Holland, in 
South America, perhaps in Central America, but not 
on the North American continent. Ministers did not 
wish it to be understood at all that they meant to pray 
for the downtrodden in this land. They prayed for 
the poor everywhere but at home. They prayed for 
the oppressed everywhere but in America. They 
prayed for the righting of the wronged and the pun- 
ishment of the -wronger all the world over except in 
certain latitudes and longitudes on this Western shore. 
Men were faithful in the denunciation of all sins 
except those that lay near their ship, their store, and 
their pocket. 

But although there has been this selfishness of the 
American mind, yet as the tide, coming steadily from 
the ocean, works in, and encroaches, and rises, and 
deepens the shallow places, and covers sticks and 
stones, and all the landmarks, till the whole bay is 
full, and the very heart of the ocean pulsates against 
the shore, and the indentations of it ; so God has been 
filling steadily the mind of this great nation by the tide 
setting from the eternal fulness of his own heart ; and 
the day of this delinquency has passed away, and we 
are going to see better times. 

Hitherto the history of this nation has been one of 
selfishness, in enslaving the African at the South ; in 



214 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

indifference, substantially, to his enslavement at the 
North ; and in the avoidance of the vexed question of 
slavery by the Church. Do you not know that this has 
been the stone of stumbling and rock of offence every- 
where ? It is so now in many places. It is so in this 
city to a great extent. I suspect that the pastors of 
half the churches in this city, if you should go to them 
and urge them to preach right out the duty of tlic 
Church in this matter, would tell you that they were 
in full sympathy with the cause of justice and liberty 
as appUed to the slave, and would say, " My heart is 
willing, but I am so situated that I cannot. The most 
influential men in my church would not tolerate it ; 
and I do not think I am bound to do it." I do not 
believe that half the churches of Brooklyn are in such 
a state that their ministers would dare to preach the 
full Gospel on the suljject of the slave. And yet I 
take it that Brooklyn is far in advance of many other 
places in this respect. 

But everywhere this has been the vexed question, to 
be avoided in prayer-meetings, in conference-meetings, 
in monthly concerts, in religious assemblies of every 
description. And now, many ministers, if they were 
to offer up a petition for the slave by name, would 
have a visit from a committee the next day, with good 
advice. And the American Church, taken compre- 
hensively, for a long period of years, has avoided tliis 
question. You must, however, exempt the churches 
in many parts of our country for the last ten or fifteen 
years. I think that the churches in New England, for 
the last fifteen years, have done much to redeem 
themselves from this delinquency, as have also tlie 
Western and the Northwestern churches. But tlie 



THE CHURCH'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 215 

Southern Church is an apostate church. There is no 
church in the South. That whicli is called the Church 
there is the Devil's den, and not Christ's home nor 
house. But in the Middle States, and in our great 
commercial cities, the churches have been, and are 
now, with reference to slavery, much hke a doctor in 
a plague, who should think that his first duty was to 
see that he did not get infected himself, and that he 
did not waste his medicines. What would you think 
of a doctor whose idea of practice was that he should 
take care not to get sick ? He was made a doctor to 
cure the sick, to go where they are, to think of them, 
and not to think about himself. And what is medi- 
cine for, but to give to sick men ? And yet our dainty 
doctors in the Church take out their white powders of 
truth, and when a poor diseased man comes to be 
cured, tliey say, " Why, that man's mouth is impure, 
and for him to take these beautiful powders would be 
to waste them ! " Their Gospel is so respectable, tlreir 
Clu'istian institutions are so nice, tlicre are sucli good 
and influential men in tliem, tlicir doctrines are so 
fine, and their Christianity is so clothed in white rai- 
ment, that they do not want to soil them by handling 
this vulgar question of slavery, slavery^ slavery, noth- 
ing but slavery, — this everlasting ism, negrophilism. 
Negrophilism I I thank you for that word. It takes 
me back to the days when the Jews reproached Christ 
because he would go with sinners, and eat with them, 
and preach to them. Christ was charged with being 
a vulgar fellow because he would go with bad men, 
when he made this reply : " They that be whole need 
not a physician, but they that are sick." But our 
American Church has refused to follow the example 



216 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

of Christ, to go down to the poor and needy, and 
to hold and preach a Gospel that was for the poorest 
and the neediest. And God has seen, and history will 
record, that in the critical years of the American na- 
tion, the American Church has been faithless to the 
poor. God has begun to call her back. With stripes 
and chastisements is she coming back ; and it is high 
time. 

In all attempts to settle anything, thus far, the as- 
sumed basis is, and has been, that the peace and pros- 
perity of this great white nation must be the gauge 
and rule. In and out of Congress, in the most re- 
spectable quarters, as the world goes, it is said, " We 
must not destroy this fair white nation for the sake 
of taking care of a few negroes." A white nation 
that is saved by the sacrifice of a few negroes, or a 
million negroes, is not worth saving. The essential 
moral qualities of a nation are all that make it worth 
saving ; and if this nation turns aside from its mani- 
fest duty, and agrees merely to save itself, it is not 
worth saving. But I say that its salvation is through 
the dark gate. If we would save ourselves, we must 
be willing to imitate our Master, who came " not to 
be ministered unto, but to minister " ; that is, not 
to be served, but to serve. He came not to be the 
chief, but to be the servant. This willingness to 
serve is the legacy which he has left to the Church ; 
and a Christian nation, if it would endure, must have 
the attitude and spirit of the Master. If it wants to 
save the top, it must save the bottom. Our wisdom 
is like that of a man who, knowing that the sills 
of his dwelling are rotting out, goes and puts new 
shingles on the roof, and gilds the tip of the light- 



THE CHURCirS DUTY TO SLAVERY. 217 

ning-rod. The rotting coiitiDucs, and a corner sags, 
and the rooms get out of shape, and the doors refuse 
to be shut, and the windows will not budge, and he 
keeps on rigging and tinkering at the top. Now the 
way to save the top is to save the bottom, and that is 
the only way. And there are four million foundation 
men in this nation. You cannot get them out from 
under you. They are more vital than you are. They 
are like purslain ; the more you cut it up the more it 
spreads. They are like thistles. Every stroke you 
give them, you sow seeds from which new ones 
spring up. It is the. children of Israel over again. 
The Egyptians tried all sorts of ways to get rid of 
them ; but they increased upon them, and finally 
destroyed them. And yet the old Egyptians, with 
Pharaoh at their head, did not feel a whit more secure 
than we, nor a whit more vain of their superiority 
over the detested Hebrew, than we are of our superi- 
ority over the negro. 

Our danger lies in moral delinquency. We are 
liable to have the foundations of our nation rot out 
from under us, because we will not, in the spirit of 
Christ, preach the Gospel, with all its justice and 
humanity, in behalf of the poor and the oppressed. 
If we had the courage to do that, we should be in 
no danger at all. Our danger will be gone the 
moment we are converted to Christianity in that 
simple thing. 

In all attempts now making, as far as I can see, by 
tliis government, and the Christian public sentiment 
of this nation, to meet the present case of the nation, 
the implied and assumed basis of proceeding is not 
ivhat is right and just to the slave^ but what will be 

10 



218 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

best for the ivJdtes. The vice of our times is uncon- 
scious selfishness. 

I do not speak this to denounce or deride the Ad- 
ministration. You are well aware of the esteem in 
which I hold them, and how grateful I am that God 
has been pleased to give us such a chief magistrate as 
President Lincoln. It is a comfort and a consolation 
to have an unrotten man in that chair at Washington, 
and not a day goes over my head that I do not feel, 
unconsciously and involuntarily an emotion of grati- 
tude to God that there is a man there who, whatever 
may be his mistakes, wants to do right, and means to 
do riglit. It is a great thing to have a President that 
the nation can trust ; for trust has been a commodity 
the rarest and most exquisitely precious in Washing- 
ton for the last fifty years. And yet while I have this 
high regard for, and this great trust in, the Adminis- 
tration at Washington, it seems to me that the basis 
of their action is no better than that which is implied 
or assumed by the churches or the Christian public 
sentiment of this nation. We are altogether webbed 
in a common selfishness, and our common thought is, 
" How shall we white folks get rid of this intolerable 
vexation ? how shall we set ourselves free from these 
embarrassments ? " It is self, self, self, all the way 
through. Nor do I anywhere hear men saying, " It 
is the voice of Christ, by the providence of God, 
calling us to labor for the poor. I am an ordained 
man, sent to preach the Gospel to the poor, as well as 
to the rich. My Gospel must be so full of justice and 
humanity that it shall take care of the bottom at all 
events, since that which takes care of the bottom will 
of necessity take care of the top." 



THE CHURCH'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 219 

The only Christian beginning, then, in this matter, 
is to ask simply : " What is best for both black and 
white ? " A justice and benevolence that goes down 
to the slave, as Christ did to the* publican and 
the sinner, and contemplates no measure less than 
such as shall meet the exigency of his case, is the 
only one adequate to our emergency. And this 
should be said more emphatically because there is in 
the American mind a tendency to settle moral ques- 
tions as they build houses in new settlements, where 
they throw the hammer at the nail, and call that 
nailing ; where they think nothing of commencing a 
house at sunrise and completing it at sunset ; where 
they put up the plainest and most tumble-down 
structures, and call them substantial dwelHngs. The 
disposition to drive ahead, and throw everything out 
the way that hinders our progress, has led to a mode 
of patching and making use of expedients. Wq are 
like the doctor who, instead of making thorough work 
with his patient, gives him a little physic and puts 
him on his feet again as speedily as possible ; or like 
the doctor who dries up the sores of his patient, 
instead of curing them. Quick ! quick I quick ! is 
our idea ! Thorough ! thorough ! thorough ! is God's 
idea ! And the peculiar temptation of our times will 
be the feeling, ^' Let us get this war off our hands ; 
let us be done with it ; let us tie up these things ; let 
us heal over this rupture ; because we want to build 
more ships ; because we want to start more factories ; 
because we want to hear the forge again ; because we 
want to see everything buzzing and spinning once 
more." We shall be anxious to go back to material- 
ity. We are" materialists. We live by the senses, 
and for the senses. We live for business and for the 



220 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

world. We do not live for God, for spiritual tilings, 
nor for eternity. And this feeling pervades and 
vitiates our public policy. Somewhere there must a 
stand be made. There must be a point about which 
health can be organized. Is it not time that some- 
body should speak on this subject ? 

And now, with respect to the theories that are being 
advocated in reference to the disposition to be made 
of the Africans. President Lincoln advocates col- 
onization. I see that a bill has been introduced pro- 
viding for the purchase of territory for their occupa- 
tion. It is asserted by published letters on this sub- 
ject that President Lincoln is opposed to any settle- 
ment that does not carry with it the enforced coloni- 
zation of the freedmen of this nation. Now if the 
Africans want to go to a tropical land ; if they think 
it will be for their interest to try their hand in Cen- 
tral America, or in some part of Mexico, let them have 
the liberty of doing it ; but, in the name of God and 
eternal justice, I protest against the spectacle, shame- 
ful to Christianity and to us, of this great and power- 
ful nation taking the poor, wronged, stripped African, 
and carrying him an exile from the land which is 
his native land, and therefore the land of his prefer- 
ence. Compulsory colonization is a wanton violation 
of the spirit and letter of Christianity. The true and 
right spirit is, as fast as God in his providence pro- 
claims liberty to the captive, to give him succor in 
every possible way. Wherever the American banner 
floats again, wherever its stars shine out again, 
wherever its stripes wave again, there every man 
should be a freeman ; and the duty of the Govern- 
ment to every slave that is liberated is to give him 
books, to give him education, to give him wages, to 



THE CHUKCII'S DUTY TO SLAVERY. 221 

give him land, and to give him a chance for Christian 
manhood. 

What does the negro that stands knocking at our 
door demand ? Does he demand equahty ? No. We 
do not give that to our own white citizens. An igno- 
rant man is not equal to an educated one. A man 
of slender endowments • is not equal to a man of 
brilliant genius. Equality, in the sense of social 
equality, is not known to nature, nor to grace, even. 
And we do not demand for the African equality. 
When Yice-President Stephens argues against the 
equality of the blacks and the whites, he sets up a 
man of straw that he may knock it down again. 
Does the African demand intermarriage or interfilia- 
tion ? No such thing. He has more sense, and we 
have more sense than to do that. What does he de- 
mand ? He stands up and says, " God made me, and 
gave me reason, and moral sense, and affections: I 
only claim the air, and the earth, and a place to use 
these things, and make as much of them as I can, 
unhindered. Take off from me the law that will not 
let me be my own, and that will not let me own my 
wife and children. Take off from me the law that 
makes it a crime for me or mine to have a book. 
Take off from me the law that will not let me expand 
and develop all that God put in me when he created 
me." Was there ever a petition more reasonable and 
right ? And what shall the judgment-day do to you 
and me, if, being factors of the public sentiment of 
this nation, we fail to impress upon it that Christian 
equity and Christian humanity which give a chance 
to the African to be what he can be ? That is all he 
asks. It seems to me there never was a day when it 
was so incumbent upon us to go into the control of 



222 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

public affairs in the spirit of the text of to-night, and 
carry the Gospel to the poor, as now. Whatever 
comes of anything else, see to it that your Gospel is 
of a temper of justice and of humanity, such that it 
will, like Christ, go down to the wants of the lowest 
and the least ; and God will see to it, then, that there 
shall flame forth Ji divine influence that shall illumine 
and take care of all the rest in human society. 

It will not be long before you and I lay off this 
habiliment of flesh. Our days and our hours are 
numbered, and we are quick passengers to that bar of 
impartial justice where God shall sit without prejudice 
to judge our prejudiced lives. Young man, dainty 
maiden, brother of middle life, venerable sir, when 
you are dying, and going up to that judgment, it will 
give you more joy to think that you have, befriended a 
poor African slave, than to have taken the hand of 
Napoleon, or worn a crown of empire. In that day 
the things that you have done for those that were sick 
and imprisoned, the things that you have done for 
Christ in the form of his poor despised ones, will be 
like balm and frankincense to your spirit as it is going 
up before the Father of all. Remember that every 
living creature is God's child. If you had abused my 
child in the street, how would you dare meet me ? 
and if you abuse one of God's children, how will you 
dare meet him? In respect to four million men, 
Christ stands in our midst to day, saying, " Inasmuch 
as you do it unto the least of these, ye do it unto me." 
If you buffet and spit upon them, Christ is buffetted 
and spit upon ; but if you clothe them and feed 
them and lift them up, Christ is clothed and fed and 
lifted up. 



X. 



THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOM.^ 



" Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; 
cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard for 
the people. Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, 
Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his 
reward is with him, and his work before him. And they shall call them, 
The holy people, the redeemed of the Lord: and thou shalt be called, 
Sought out, A city not forsaken." — Isaiah Ixii. 10, 11, 12. 




REAT reformations in morals can never stop 
with individuals. As corruption of the cit- 
izen soon infects the institutions and the 
laws of the land, so the reformation of the 
citizen reforms laws and usages. It is such a refor- 
mation that the prophet celebrates. It is a proclama- 
tion, therefore, of blessings from God, founded upon 
the willingness of the people to follow the Divine rule. 
These blessings are to result from righteousness. And 
the prophet, instructed of God, calls upon the nation 
to look forward and expect the coming of God, and 
to make preparation for it ; and that in no small 
measure. 

We, too, have occasion for rejoicing as Christians, 
as churches, as philanthropists, and as a nation. 
I hold in my hand the latest Proclamation of the 

* Preached March 9, 1S62, at the time of the compensated emanci- 
pation Message of President Lincoln. 



224 FREEDOM AND WAE. 

President of these United States. A Messag-e, we call 
it, and yet it is inevitably a Proclamation. I do not 
hesitate to say that it stands absolutely alone. Never 
before has there been in the history of this Govern- 
ment, such a message. If it be considered in its rela- 
tions to our past history and to our future, it is not 
too much to say that there has never been such a state 
paper before in this nation. Dates will begin from 
it. In the year of this Message of President Lincoln 
will begin a new cycle of our national career. If 
it be considered in its relations to purity, to peace, 
to liberty, and to unity, it must also take rank as an 
eminent moral force. And I should deem myself de- 
linquent if I did not pause, and call the attention of 
this Christian people to some considerations of duty, 
arising from the great deliverance which God is about 
to give us, — for there are grave duties devolving 
upon us. Our work is not to be done for us : our 
work is to be done through us, and by us. And God 
is saying to us, " Prepare the way of the people ; cast 
up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones," — 
take away the hinderances and the obstructions ; " lift 
up a standard for the people," — make ready to begin 
the work. With the ideas that you know that I hold, 
as to the duty of a preacher in this country, where all 
citizens are legislators and judges, where all power 
resides with the people, who are its administrators, 
I should be unfaithful if I did not advertise you of 
this emergency, and put you upon doing your duty. 

Let me read some parts of this Message in your 
hearing. 

" Fellow Citizens of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives: I recommend the adoption of a joint resolution by 



THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOxU 225 

your honorable bodies, which shall be substantially as fol- 
lows : — 

'■'Resolved, That the United States ought to co-operate 
with any State which may adopt a gradual abolishment of 
slavery, giving to such State pecuniary aid to be used by such 
State in its discretion to compensate for the inconveniences, 
public and private, produced by such change of system. 

"If the proposition contained in the resolution does not 
meet the approval of Congress and the country, there is the 
end." 

So far as lie is concerned ; but it is not the end : 
there is a President ; and there is also a God above 
him. 

" But if it does meet such approval, I deem it important 
that the States and people immediately interested should at 
once be distinctly notified of the fact, so that they may begin 
to consider whether to accept or reject it." 

And now take notice that it has been openly 
declared by our Chief Magistrate that slavery is in- 
compatible with good government. What a day we 
have reached ! What a day has come to us ! A sen- 
timent, half of which, fifteen or twenty years ago, 
would have driven a man down the streets of New 
York before a mob, and rendered him liable to have 
his property sacked, is now uttered by the Chief Magis- 
trate of this nation, and is about to be made the sub- 
ject of legislation in our land. Mark the words : 

" The Federal Government would find its highest interest 
in such a measure as one of the most efficient means of self- 
preservation." 

It is the abolishment of slavery which is thus spo- 
ken of. 



10* 



226 FEEEDOM AND WAR. 

•"The leaders of the existing insurrection entertain the 
hope that the Government will ultimately be forced to ac- 
knowledge the independence of some part of the disaffected 
region, and that all the slave States north of such parts will 
then say, 'The Union for which we have struggled being 
already gone, we now choose to go with the Southern, section.' 
To deprive them of this hope substantially ends the rebellion, 
and the initiation of emancipation completely deprives them 
of it. As to all the States initiating it, the point is not that 
all the States tolerating slavery would very soon, if at all, 
initiate emancipation, but that, while the offer is equally made 
to all, the more Northern shall, by such initiation, make it 
certain to the more Southern, that in no event will the former 
ever join the latter in their proposed Confederacy." 

There is one other passage tliat I wish to read, and 
that is a significant intimation of a principle, the 
acknowledgment of which and its adoption in prac- 
tice by the people and the national authorities, must 
bring the war to a speedy close. 

" If, however, resistance continues, the war must also con- 
tinue, and it is impossible to foresee all the incidents which 
may attend, and all the ruin which may follow it. Such as 
may seem indispensable, or may obviously promise great 
efficiency toward ending the struggle, must and will come." 

So says President Lincoln, and generally what he 
says he means. 

The fact of the existence of such a document at all 
is the most noticeable feature in it. How strange it 
is ! You cannot appreciate the strangeness of it if you 
judge it by the events that have been occurring within 
the past few months. But go back a few years, and 
imagine such a document issuing from President 
Buchanan's administration. It makes one smile to 



THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOM. 227 

mention it. Imagine the issue, by the President of 
the United States, of a document initiating eman- 
cipation, or the abolishment of slavery, as Presi- 
dent Lincohi peculiarly styles it, in the time of Mr. 
Pierce's administration. Imagine such a document 
issuing from the administration of President Fill- 
more, or Polk, or Tyler, or Van Buren. To think 
of it takes a man's breath away ! But we have come 
quietly down by steps of four years, until at last this 
glorious period is reached, in our own day, and while 
men are yet young who saw the beginning of the great 
antislavery struggle that seems Hkely to be soon 
ended. We have come quietly down to the period 
when a document is issued by the President of the 
United States maugurating emancipation, and looking 
to the extinction of slavery in this nation, and pledg- 
ing the power and resources of this great people to the 
work. There never was such a revolution since the 
world began, upon such a scale, involving such inter- 
ests, and taking place within so short a time. 

I propose, then, to make a few remarks upon this 
Message of the President. I wish to contribute my 
share, and to have you contribute your share of that 
approbation and sympathy which our rulers need in 
taking such a step as this. It is a sublime responsi- 
bility that is assumed. It required, to be sure, sagac- 
ity ; but, more than that, it required courage, for the 
Chief Magistrate of this people to determine upon 
such a step, and issue such a paper ; and that courage 
should be met with such instant sympathy and support 
from the whole people, as shall induce the President 
not only to maintain this stand, but efficiently to go 
forward from it. 



228 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

I. This paper completes a circle, and brings the 
Government of these United States back to that point 
at which it stood upon the adoption of our present 
Constitution. When the fathers, finding the articles 
of confederation which were agreed upon during the 
revolutionary war to be insufficient, and the govern- 
ment to be weak in the performance of its unavoidable 
functions, convoked that convention out of which grew 
the Constitution of the United States, slavery was ex- 
isting, but in a languishing and declining condition. 
It existed in most of the Northern States, but to a 
very limited extent. All the political ideas of the 
times were against it, and all the moral influences of 
the times were against it, and it was not uncommon 
to hear, not only men from Virginia, but the Gadsdens 
and Laurenses and Pinckneys of Carolina, as much as 
any others, admit the right of the African to liberty. 
Slavery was not attempted to be defended upon origi- 
nal grounds, political or moral. And when the Con- 
stitution was adopted there was one universal wish, 
and, I may say, one universal expectation, that slavery 
would cease. And the Constitution takes its form in 
consequence of that impression ; for it was refused to 
dishonor that immortal document by the insertion into 
it of the word slavery. It was understood that when 
that vile system passed away, there should be no such 
trace of it left. Unexpectedly it received develop- 
ment. In God's mysterious providence slavery had a 
part to play in the history of the country. It was to 
be an educating force in this nation. Among those 
things which God was to employ in working out the 
sublime results that he had decreed, was slavery. As 
there was need for a Judas to a Christ, that the 



THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOM. 229 

world's salvation might be wrought out; so there 
must be a slavery to liberty, to betray it, tliat it might 
suffer, and revive, and triumph. And we have seen, 
since the adoption of the Constitution, the inflation of 
the system of slavery, and its augmenting power and 
influence in politics. We have gone through a com- 
plete period. And now this document brings back 
the -last link, which touches the first one. As repre- 
sented by the President of the United States, this 
country stands where it did when the Constitution 
was adopted. Slavery 'existed, but with the desire 
and expectation and intention of its extinction. For 
ten years, for twenty years, for thirty years, for fifty 
years, slavery has intended to live, and its advocates 
have attempted to give it permanency ; and the last 
form it assumed was to declare that liberty absolute 
was false, and that the only true foundation of so- 
ciety was slavery. And the Constitution of these 
United States has been set aside by the Southern 
Confederacy on the explicit ground that it was false, 
in that it asserted the right of all men equally to lib- 
erty. Slavery, going on and setting up these claims, 
has gone through one great period of trial, and we 
have come back, in this Message of the President, to 
the place where our fathers stood. Slavery exists as 
a fact, but the moral feelings of the people are against 
it ; not against slaveholders personally, but against 
the accursed thing itself. 

II. In that great cycle which now is completed, 
slavery lias achieved a history. Certain unaltera- 
ble results have been wrought out. It has been 
put upon trial before the land. And what it has 
been is not to be ascertained from the speculations 



230 FREEDOM AND WAPw 

of those that have defended it, but from the effects 
that have been wrought out by it in the national 
life. What are some of the results that have been 
produced under its influence ? It has been tried in 
almost every great department of human industry, 
and if there be one thing susceptible of demonstration 
above another, it is that there is no industrial pursuit 
which is not blighted by slavery. The fire does not 
scorch the prairie in autumnal days more certainly 
than does the foot of slavery scorch and burn out the 
fertility of the soil. The slave system impoverishes 
the community in every State where it exists. It may 
enrich a class in the community, but it always impov- 
erishes the community as a whole. It has therefore 
demonstrated itself to be unfit for universal hus- 
bandry. It has demonstrated itself to be malignant 
to the mechanic arts. It has demonstrated itself to be 
hateful to that last grand modern idea for the com- 
mon people, work. It has demonstrated itself, also, to 
be utterly irreconcilable with general intelligence. 
Where slavery exists there must be ignorance. Igno- 
rance is the swaddling-garment in which alone it can 
thrive. And where it is necessary for four millions 
of people to be ignorant, it is impossible that there 
should be an atmosphere of intelligence. If the slaves 
must be ignorant, so must their fellows, the white 
people. But for the prevalent ignorance of the South, 
we should have been spared this gigantic rebellion. 
They could not understand. They have received 
every possible misrepresentation into too credulous 
ears. It is because they have not intelligence to know 
the truth that they have been so grossly misled by 
their perverted teachers and leaders. 



THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOM. 231 

Slavery has revealed, also, what kind of citizens 
grow up under its influence, and what sort of pa- 
triotism it breeds. Liberty has been at work breeding 
citizens at the North. They are national. They love 
the whole country. And other citizens have been 
reared and educated at the South. On the first test 
of selfish interest it has cost them nothing to snap the 
sacred golden chain that bound these United States to- 
gether. It cost them nothing to throw away all the 
history of the past, and all the venerable associations 
of the fathers. It cost them nothing to pull down 
that dear old flag that has been carried so many years 
with such glory around the world, to tread it under 
foot, and to substitute for it a bastard rag. And round 
about this false symbol, this new flag of dishonor, 
they have gathered together, not so much to lay the 
foundation of new institutions and new States, as to 
say to the world, " This rebellious rabble bears wit- 
ness to the effect of slavery in educating citizens." 
That is the stufl" that it makes of them. By nature 
they were as good as we were ; but the Devil educated 
them, and the Lord educated us ! 

It has entered also the temple of God ; and we have 
the record of the evil influences exerted by slavery 
upon the morals and the beliefs of the people. It has 
drugged the priests at the altar. It has put false fire 
thereon, and in the lurid light of that fire it has read 
God's word backward, making the charter of liberty 
for the world to be the charter of despotism. The 
apostasy of the Southern churches is one of the most 
extraordinary that ever took place. Never was the 
foul virus and bitterness of slavery shown before as it 
has been in the prostration of the churches of the 



232 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

South, and the utter apostasy of the ministers of the 
Gospel belonging to them. They have forsworn the 
Lord that bought them, in trampling under foot his 
poor and abused ones. You may reason as you 
please ; you may weave your political sophistries as 
you please, but these great facts stand out. Statistics 
reveal them. So manifest are they, that though all 
the statistics have been gathered by men appointed by 
pro-slavery administrations, and strained and doc- 
tored by them, it has not been possible for the utmost 
amount of perversion to present them so as not to 
have it stand out in living characters, that slavery 
degrades, demoralizes, and destroys ; while on the other 
side it has been made to appear that liberty enriches, 
makes more intelligent, promotes good morals, and 
gives every element of prosperity. These results are 
not speculations ; they are historic, tabulated facts. 

Now that it has been done, I thank God that this 
gigantic mischief and evil has been wrought out. It 
has been a dreary history to go through, that of the 
last hundred years, while God has been developing 
these results ; and yet, now that the work is done, I 
am glad of it. The arrest of Christ, the mockery of 
his trial, his crown of thorns, his buffetings, his cruci- 
fixion, and his burial, were awful things ; but now 
that they are past, who would take one day from the 
dark days ? Who would take one thorn from the 
crown ? Who would take one pang from the suffer- 
ing ? For all of these are now the elements of a 
sublime triumph. And now that the days of slavery 
are drawing to a close, and the dawn is in the east, 
and God is giving to the world this last demonstra- 
tion of the abominations of this monstrous iniquity, 



THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOIM. 233 

why should we not rejoice in the elements of triumph 
which its history has revealed ? 

III. There is a sublimity in this result, as being 
the practical and slowly formed Gonviction of a great 
people of the mischiefs of despotism. President Lin- 
coln has not shot out this, conviction merely by tlie 
force of his own reflection. He is not a voice crying 
in the wilderness. He has felt the dropping of the 
great heart of this people. He has heard the great 
voice that has gone up toward him. All the conven- 
tions that have met, all the meetings that have been 
held, all the speeches that have been made, and all 
the sermons tliat have been preached, have wafted 
their influence down to Washington, and President 
Lincoln understands distinctly that while he acts in 
his own right as a Magistrate, he yet is to speak the 
public sentiment of this nation in declaring that the 
time for emancipation has come. He is eminently a 
man of the people ; and there never was a lip that 
spoke more absolutely for this people than he has now 
spoken, in declaring substantially that this govern- 
ment requires that slavery shall be done away, in 
order to preserve its own existence. The time has 
come, and the work must begin. You feel it ; I feel 
it ; the North feels it, and means it. 

We believed in the benefits of liberty before this 
great experiment, theoretically and romantically. 
Ideas of liberty filled all the earliest and most gener- 
ous impulses of the young heart. And we believed 
in liberty also as a fact for ourselves. We asserted 
it as a selfish instinct. We held the faith of liberty. 
Liberty never becomes a moral sentiment until it is 
universal. When you achieve it for yourselves, and 



234 FREEDOM AND WAR 

demand it for those that cannot earn it for them- 
selves, then it becomes a moral sentiment, and a re- 
ligion. We valued liberty as a blessing for our- 
selves. Then came the fatal bribe. Slavery had it in 
its power, by impoverishing the South, to make the 
North temporarily rich. It said to the North, " I will 
hot permit a various industry. Only two or three 
things will I permit to be raised at the South. What- 
ever else is required here your fields shall supply. I 
will not permit the loom here to go. I will not per- 
mit the anvil here to thrive. I will not permit the 
arts nor the elements of civilization here to flourish. 
To you I will give the monopoly of furnishing the 
South with most of the articles which they require 
for their physical life, and you shall grow rich, if you 
will let me alone." It was a dreadful bribe. It has 
had a wonderful effect upon our commercial towns 
and villages. It is the secret spring of the feeling 
yet existing in the North, which resists emancipa- 
tion in the South. There are many who do not 
like the idea of the community there becoming able 
to supply its own necessities. Their desire is not so 
much that every State of this great country shall 
have the means of livelihood, as that one part shall 
be kept weak and dependent, that the other part, by 
supplying its wants, may become rich and strong. 
But it is not growth : it is bloat. All that the North 
gains at such a price is not strength nor riches. It is 
rather the bloat of vice and intemperance. 

But in spite of all this prodigious bribe, that did 
work for a time, blinding the eye, hardening the heart, 
suppressing the conscience, perverting the faith, and 
turning back the courage of this people, the great 



THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOM. 235 

industrial North, convinced by plain facts, has come 
to the full, irreversible conviction, that slavery is a 
nuisance, and that a republican government cannot 
exist in connection with national slavery. If there 
Is one result which we have come to more thor- 
oughly than to another, that is it. Our choice is 
between republican hberty and slavery. You must 
have one. or the other. You cannot have both.* 
And the North has made up its mind that it is going 
to have republican liberty. The gains of slavery are 
believed to be illusory. Its disturbances and cor- 
ruptions are believed to endanger every household, 
every farm, every shop, every ship, every law, and 
every government on this whole continent. That is 
the popular feeling. It has become such in your day 
and mine. And it is not going to be unmade. It is 
the result of long discussion. It is the result of the 
most thorough writing and reading. It is the result 
of the deliberation of a great, intelligent common 
people, and of that of its moral and political leaders. 
They have considered for themselves. They have 
heard both sides. - They have examined the facts. 
And, without being biassed by one side or the other, 
the loyal States have come to the irreversible con- 
viction that slavery is a gigantic mischief and nui- 
sance, incompatible with good government on this 
continent. 

This conviction has been slowly wrought out. It 
is not a theorist's saying. It is not even a moral 
philosophy. It is hardly to be regarded as a doctrine 
of political economy or of politics. It is simply a 
practical judgment, a popular decision. 

Loyal citizens differ exceedingly as to the character 



236 . FREEDOM AND WAR. 

of the African ; as to the benefit of slavery or liberty 
to him ; as to his rights ; as to the best way of letting 
him go free ; as to the disposal of him afterward ; 
but I think it may be said that, while these discrepan- 
cies exist, there is a united and settled popular con- 
viction that slavery is bad all round, — bad to the 
States that have it, and bad to the States that are 
united with them. And I think there is also a con- 
viction that slavery must come to an end. I know it. 
There are as great discrepancies in the opinions of 
men as to many of the questions connected with 
slavery as ever, and we must expect that there will 
continue to be ; but I think that on one point there 
is no discrepancy. I think it may be said that public 
opinion has doomed slavery. We look upon it as a 
great dismal swamp. We look upon its influence 
as upon poisonous malaria rising up. For many 
years its evils have swept over the whole land, 
and all the country has had chills and fever. And 
now the nation has said, " Let us take quinine, and 
besides, not only that we may cure these results, but 
prevent their recurrence hereafter, let us drain that 
swamp ! " And it is going to be drained into the 
Gulf. They may do the work ; but if they do not, 
we will do it for them. That dismal swamp, by them 
or by us, is going to be drained. This nation is not 
going to have the chills and fever for another hun- 
dred years. 

lY. It is a memorable epoch that is marked by 
this state paper, as illustrating a complete trial and 
triumph of the power of free discussion and moral 
influences applied to the removal of national evils. 
The men are yet alive, and many of them are scarcely 



THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOM. 237 

old yet, who saw the beginning of that agitation 
which, having gone through most remarkable pliases, 
has resulted at last in this substantial change of 
the public mind and feeling. I remember the first 
outbreaks. I remember well when William Lloyd 
Garrison lay in a jail in the South on the charge of 
using inflammatory language. I remember the great 
stir that there was in the churches when he came 
North and began in unmeasured, and I cannot say 
justifiable language, to denounce the mischiefs of 
slavery. The men are yet alive who were mobbed for 
the assertion of those truths that are now uttered by 
the President of these United States, when he declares 
that slavery is inconsistent with the safety of this gov- 
ernment. I must read that sentence again : — 

" The Federal Government would find its highest interest 
in such a measure as one of the most efficient means of self- 
preservation." 

What measure ? The aboHshment of slavery. The 
President of these United States is not mobbed for 
that assertion. Mr. Lewis Tappan was, in his day ; 
and Mr. Arthur Tappan ; and Dr. Cox ; and Mr. Gar- 
rison ; and Mr. Phillips ; and Mr. Alvan Stuart, of 
blessed memory. All these men, and many more, a 
large proportion of whom are yet at work with harness 
on, lost place, lost caste, lost preferment, lost influence 
with bad men, and only gained it with good, for the 
declaration of principles not so offensive as that which 
is made the very axis of the Message of the President 
of the United States, — that this government cannot 
exist without the abolishment of slavery. 

The battles of the Presbyteries of the West were 



238 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

under my notice. Every device was employed to pre- 
vent the going forth from those bodies of the declara- 
tion that slavery was sinful. In ahout every Presbytery 
and ecclesiastical convention or assembly in the North, 
the determination was that there should not be an 
utterance of the religious community against slavery. 
The first great controversy was as to whether they 
ought to call it an evil. They did not think they 
ought to call it anything. They thought they ought to 
let it alone. They deemed it to be none of their busi- 
ness. But when they were pressed to call it, not only 
an evil, but a sin to be repented of and renounced, they 
would call it an evil, but they would not call it a sin. 
When, further, they were pressed, not only to call it 
a sin, but to discipline and cut off from communion 
those that indulged in it, they would call it a sin, but 
they would not make it a matter of discipline. And 
so, step by step, the controversy went on till it divided 
those churches that would not let it come in. It has 
torn asunder church after church, and the rupture 
has not hurt them, either : it has been the best tiling 
that could happen to them, — for to rend a church is 
like tearing a miser's treasures from him. He hoard- 
ed them, and made them instruments of his own self- 
ishness ; and when they are scattered and put into 
circulation, they subserve a far better purpose than 
they did while stowed away in coffers. How poor 
men laugh when a miser dies ! His money is unlocked 
then. And when a church is sundered, and the fast- 
enings of its temporal power are broken, the Gospel 
flows out, and gains circulation, and exerts an influ- 
ence that it could not exert when it was simply 
ministering to those whose supreme desire was to 
take care of themselves. 



THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOM. 239* 

Thougli men were despised for holding and advo- 
cating the doctrines of liberty, yet such as those whom 
I have named, and many more, gave themselves will- 
ingly to contempt for the sake of justice and truth. 
They were the instruments that God employed. And 
what had they ? They had no power in the Clmrch, 
and no power in the State. They' had no power any- 
where. They had nothing but the invincible power 
of weakness. They had nothing but the righteousness 
of their cause. They had their faith in God. They 
had their love of Christ. They had their unwavering 
conviction that the right was with them. And this 
inspired them with intense enthusiasm. And con- 
tinuing on, they have wrought out results the im- 
portance of which cannot be estimated. They have 
been the pioneers in this great revolution. They are 
men whose shoes' latchets we are not worthy to un- 
loose. I revere them as the prophets of the American 
people. 

V. One great reason of the importance of this 
Message of the President of these United States, this 
turning-point in the present great crisis, this first pro- 
nunciation of the new dispensation, this first utterance 
from the lip of the Supreme Magistrate of this nation 
in favor of liberty to the captive, consists in the fact 
that it demonstrates the power of self-government 
among an intelligent and religious common people. 
Europe cannot, and does not, understand our order 
of nobility. We have an order of nobility in this 
country. We call it the common people. We believe 
it to be the most sublime order of nobility that the 
world has ever seen. We give all rights to it, and all 
prerogatives. Whatever there is that can be given to 



240 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

any order of nobility, we give to our order of the 
common people. We rest in it. We have faith in its 
integrity, in its power of government, and in its sub- 
stantial justice. It takes more time for it to move, 
because it is so vast. An order of nobility that in- 
cludes but about five hundred members can confer 
readily, and move with celerity ; but for an order of 
nobility that includes twenty millions to confer and 
move, takes more time. What is the difference be- 
tween choir singing and congregational singing ? The 
choir is composed of but a few members, and they 
are more gifted, and can make themselves proficient 
sooner than the average of the many that compose the 
congregation ; but when the congregation does be- 
come proficient, its singing is like the voice of mighty 
thunders and great waters. There is no choir like the 
choral thousands. And though the selected or hered- 
itary nobility of the monarchies of Europe can move 
more quickly than our nobility of the common people, 
they cannot move with more power and efficiency. I 
say nothing to the discredit of the nobility of Europe ; 
but I do not hesitate to say that everything that they 
can do, our order of the common people can do, and 
much more. 

This republican government has made itself felt 
on the other side of the Atlantic. Sometimes storms 
that take place so far off that the wind does not touch 
those shores, and the clouds are not visible here, 
report themselves to us by the waves that they drive 
hither. I have heard my father tell how, on a 
tranquil evening hke this, as he went out of the 
church at East Hampton, on the distant shore of 
Long Island, he heard the waves dashing against 



THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOM. 241 

the beach, with a noise like thunder ; and he ran 
down to see them roll, as they did in terrible 
majesty. There had been a storm afar off, and the 
waves which it created reached the shore, though 
the storm reported itself in no other way. And so 
the great popular wave, set in motion by this nation, 
surges and breaks, on the shore of Europe. Though 
the Constitution, the laws, and the doctrines that pre- 
vail here are never carried over there, yet the popu- 
lar impulse is ; and thrones are unquiet, and dynas- 
ties are disturbed. Monarchs do not like the doctrines 
of the common people on this side of the water. And 
when it was supposed that this government was dis- 
solved in its own weakness, when it was supposed 
that this government was unable to cope with the 
mischiefs that had grown up in its own midst, there 
can be no doubt that there were great rejoicings 
(blessed be God, premature rejoicings,) over us. 

Now the power of this people to stand when be- 
trayed by their Government ; the power of this peo- 
ple to organize an army and navy for magnitude and 
efficiency second to none ; the power of this people 
to hold all their passions in restraint, and to maintain 
unity and power under the most provoking and irri- 
tating circumstances ; the power of this people to 
submit their pride and their very national name to 
the decree of their own chosen and trusted rulers ; 
the power of this people to throw off a gigantic evil 
from their very vitals, and to compel and maintain 
national unity against the most enormous rebellion 
that was ever generated ; the power of this common 
people, not only to do these things, but to do them 
justly, deliberately, temperately, magnanimously, as 



242 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

tliey will, is to read a lesson of self-government to 
Europe that has never been read before. 

And in the midst of this conflict, one voice rises 
above the storm. It will be heard on every throne, 
and by every people of Europe. The dungeons will 
hear it. The serfs and slaves will hear it. It is the 
voice of the Chief Magistrate of this nation, saying, 
" We must emancipate ! " We shall have made a 
greater stride in moral influence in this nation during 
the last year than we made in the fifty years previous. 
We have hitherto made great strides in material ag- 
grandizement ; but these have not, I think, given us 
moral power. 

YI. God, by giving us such schooling, such dis- 
cipline, and such a glorious issue, indicates to us that 
he means to employ this nation upon this whole con- 
tinent, for a glorious purpose and destiny. The 
auspices of the future — what imagination can con- 
ceive of and follow them ? God has given us a won- 
derful history, and I believe that he means by it that 
we shall be a right hand of power to accomplish his 
purposes on this whole continent. 

I want to call your attention, before making the 
applications, to two or three great coincidences that 
are very noticeable at this time. One is that the 
Czar of Russia, representing the extreme of monarchy, 
and the President of the United States, representing 
the extreme of republicanism, are, by a Divine Provi- 
dence sent at the same moment on the same errand. 
The Czar has issued a proclamation of emancipation 
to the serfs of Russia. On those plains where the 
plant of liberty has never grown before, and where 
the seeds of despotism have come up and flourished, 



THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOM. 243 

tlie Czar has planted the seeds of liberty. God be 
thanked that he has raised up a Moses, not near the 
throne of Egypt, but on the throne of a prouder and 
vaster empire, and that while he has inspired him to 
issue a decree of emancipation to the serfs within his 
dominions, he has inspired this people to appoint a 
Chief Magistrate who has just issued a Message for the 
emancipation of the slaves in our land. The work is 
not accomplished, but it is initiated^ as he says. It is 
initiated just as the spring is; The snow is not gone, 
but it is going ; and it will not come back ; or, if it 
does, it will not remain long. The season and the 
elements are against it. 

And let me not omit to speak a word of gratitude 
to this imperial throne for the sympathy that has 
come thence to us in the hour of our trial. When 
those who should have first of all given sympathy 
neither knew us nor spoke an encouraging word, but 
juggled and colluded with rebels ; when those who 
were blood of our blood and bone of our bone 
swarmed our shores with fleets and armies, seeking 
to destroy us ; when selfish England forgot her child 
and kindred, then Eussia opened her heart, — yet 
warm, though beating in the frozen North, and near 
Siberia, — and sent us words of cheer. 

Another coincidence is this : that while the com- 
mon people of this land are now engaged in a war for 
liberty, and while they are taking the first steps 
toward the extinction of slavery in one part of this 
continent, England and France and Spain are leagued 
together in another part, in Mexico, to destroy the 
liberty of the people of that country, to build up a 
throne, and to put upon it a member of the most 



244 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

infamous of all the reigning houses of Europe, the 
accursed house of Hapsburg.* There are the three 
crowns and the three flags attempting the work of 
subjugation and of despotism. Right alongside is 
the work of republican America, breaking the bond, 
sundering the chain, opening the prison-house, and 
giving wider swing and reach to the immortal doc- 
trines of liberty. Let them build deep the founda- 
tions of that throne. Let them put good timber into 
it. There is a groundrswell beginning, that shall 
smite it, so that no man shall find one stick joined to 
another. Let Europe attempt to establish despotism 
on this continent ! We have commenced the work of 
overthrowing oppression ; and there shall be neither 
slavery nor despotism between the sounds of the 
waves on the shores of the Pacific and the Atlantic. 
This continent is for liberty. 

One other coincidence is this : that during this 
dark period, when all business has been shocked ; 
when all the ordinary courses of affairs have been 
blocked up ; when almost every family has some 
representative on the field of battle ; when mothers 
are solicitous, and fathers are watchful ; when our 
brothers, our sons, and our friends are in peril of life ; 
when every morning is a morning of intense anxiety 
to know the tidings of yesterday, — that during this 
period God has been pleased to reveal the hand of his 
power, and revivals of religion are breaking out in 
churches, and going all around the land. In the 
midst of all this gigantic agitation, blessings abound 
in the sanctuary. War and trouble in the State ; 
peace and prosperity in the Church. What a strange 

* Such was the original plan of the Mexican invasion. 



THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOM. 245 

coincidence ! It is God's doing. God is in our 
midst. 

And now, a word as to our duties. In the first 
place, it is the duty of the whole loyal North, and 
of the Middle States, to send up to the President of 
these United States, and to the Congress assembled, 
the most unmistakable tokens, not only of their 
thanks, but of their sympathy, and their earnest and 
energetic co-operation. I would to God that it miglit 
have been so that every church in our land could 
bave. spoken to-day upon this Message of the Presi- 
dent. I would that in every town and village in the 
loyal States public meetings might be appointed to 
accord instant and hearty sympathy to the Chief 
Magistrate of this nation. As the tide rolls into the 
Bay of Fundy thirty feet perpendicular, and abreast, 
so let the tide of public sympathy roll to Washington, 
and carry on this great inspiring work in the hearts 
of our rulers. It is the duty of this people to say 
amen, as the voice of the ocean, to this Proclamation. 

Then, secondly, it is the duty of all the loyal States 
to prepare themselves to take part in this great work. 
They should lay aside all causes of division and alien- 
ation among themselves, so that citizens may stand to- 
gether on a ground common to them all. Let the old 
feuds die out. Put out the party watch-fires, and throw 
away the weapons of war. Let newspapers forget the 
animosities that have been fomented by ill-concealed 
selfishness and rivalry. Let the old and the new come 
together. Let the conservative and the progressive 
find something in common. For once, let there be a 
glorious fusion of all sides for the sake of liberty. We 
have a leader. No man can complain of this document 



246 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

of his on the score of moderation. It is among the 
marvels that all the papers that I have seen thus far 
have claimed it as the expression of their views. The 
Tribune broke forth into jubilee about it. Nothing 
can compare with the tranquil, placid pleasure that 
the World has in it. The Times has put down both 
feet and rejoiced on this platform. And the Journal 
of Commerce declares that its doctrines are those that 
it has advocated ever since it can remember ! Now, 
it is said that misery makes strange bed-fellows. I 
think you will admit that liberty makes stranger. 
But we are all together. Do npt let us go asunder. 
For once I am glad to belong to the great church 
political of alt these different members. I extend the 
right hand of fellowship to all papers, no matter what 
their former course has been, that earnestly advocate 
these acceptable doctrines of liberty. Let us forget 
the past. Let us not seek the things in which we 
differ. Let us not divide ourselves by raising ques- 
tions of the future. One step at a time is sufficient. 
Let Congress accept this recommendation of the Pres- 
ident. Let the people express their approval of it in 
tones that shall not be mistaken. Let the policy of 
emancipation begin. Let Delaware, let Maryland, let 
Kentucky, let Missouri, let Tennessee, begin to avail 
themselves of this proffer. Let the heart and the 
pocket of the nation go with the indications of Provi- 
dence. Let us make haste to reach the glorious re- 
sults that are promised. And if, when we have taken 
one step, questions come up of how, and on what con- 
ditions, God will show us the next step, if we are only 
united. I tell you, the great difficulty in the way of 
the abolition of slavery heretofore, aside from the fact 



THE BEGINNING OF FREEDOIM. 247 

that its history was not consummated, has been, that 
we did not want to abolish it. We were not united 
to do it. And now, if this people are united in this 
thing, you may depend upon it, to say nothing of the 
emphasis that there is in numbers, that where there is 
a will there is a way. If you are purposed, if you are 
willing to sacrifice something, and if you take hold of 
concordant hands, and cheer each other, and avoid 
things that are irritating, and stand together with, 
your faces as though you would go toward Jerusalem,; 
God will create a new heaven and a new earth for 
you ; a Jerusalem shall come into our midst, — a , 
Jerusalem of prefigured liberty. ^ 



XI 



THE SUCCESS OF MIERICAN DEMOCRACY* 



" So the king of the South shall come into his kingdom, and shall return 
into -his own land. But his sons shall be stirred up, and shall assemble a 
multitude of great forces : and one shall certainly come, and overflow, and 
pass through : then shall he return, and be stirred up even to his fortress. 
And the king of the South shall be moved with choler, and shall come 
forth and fight with him, even with the king of the North: and he shall 
set forth a great multitude ; bixt the multitude shall be given into his hand. 
And when he hath taken away the multitude, his heart shall be lifted up ; 
and he shall cast down many ten thousands ; but he shall not be strength- 
ened by it. For the king of the North shall return, and shall set forth a 
multitude greater than the former, and shall certainly come after certain 
years with a great array and with much riches. And in those times there 
shall many stand up against the king of the South ; also the robbers of thy 
people shall exalt themselves to establish the vision : but they shall fall. 
So the king of the North shall come, and cast up a mount, and take the 
most fenced cities : and the arms of the South shall not withstand, neither 
his chosen people, neither shall there be any strength to withstand. But 
he that cometh against him shall do according to his own will, and none 
shall stand before him; and he shall stand in the glorious land, which by 
his hand shall be consumed. He shall also set his face to enter with the 
strength of his whole kingdom. And equality " — or conditions of equality 
— " shall be with him ; thus shall he do." — Dan. xi. 9 - 17. 



do not use these words in any close histori- 
cal sense. They are a very poetic and 
glowing description of a conflict in which, ■ 
with a singular fitness to our times, both 
the terms North and South, and the events which were 

* April 13, 1862, the anniversary Sunday of the attack on Fort Sumter. 




THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCPvACY. 249 

predicted, are strikingly suggestive. And although 
a sharp exegesis might destroy some parts of the 
seeming analogy, I shall consider them as a splen- 
did poetic imagery. As such, I think you will agree 
with me that it is a remarkable passage, and that 
it not only describes the past with great accuracy, 
but throws a blazing light upon the times that arc 
to come. We are in the midst of times the most 
exciting ; times that demand faith ; times in which 
the teachings and prophecies of Scripture come with 
peculiar emphasis. 

You will remember the scenes of one year ago. 
It was just su-ch a bright and beautiful day as this 
has been. The air was full of news. These great 
cities boiled like caldrons. The people had learned 
that the guns had opened upon Fort Sumter. Treason 
was consummated ! Our hearts yearned toward the 
brave garrison. We hoped that the leaders and their 
companions in arms would sustain the stronghold. 
Our hearts felt the cold breath of horror, when at 
last it was known that the flag of the Union had been 
assaulted. The forts that had belched their fire upon 
that flag had been built imderneath its protection. 
They had carried it for years upon their flag-staff. 
The very guns that were flaming upon* it had been 
founded and forged under its flowing folds. The 
men that aimed them had been born and reared 
under its protection. That flag had been the honored 
ensign of our people in their memorable struggle for 
independence. It had seen the British arms, laid 
down before it. It had been honored in every land. 
Our men-of-war had borne it, without disgrace, to 
every part of the world. Nor was there a port upon 
11* 



250 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

the globe where men chose or dared to insult that 
national emblem. That inglorious wickedness was 
reserved to our own people ! It was by American 
hands that it was dishonored, slit with balls, and 
trailed in the dust ! 

That a crime so unnatural and monstrous was then 
going on, made the anniversary of this day memora- 
ble above all Sabbaths of our history. It was an 
infernal insurrection against liberty, good govern- 
ment, and civilization, on the most sacred day of 
the week ! We shall not soon experience a like 
excitement again. Although but a year ago, it seems 
ten years. And, in ordinary history, ten years are 
not so full of matter as has been this single year. It 
is full of events visible, but yet more full of those 
things that do not come under corporeal observation. 

Such has been the intensity of public feeling, that 
it has seemed as if nothing was doing. We have 
chidden those in authority, and felt that due speed 
had not been made. But within one twelvemonth a 
gigantic army has been raised and drilled ; all its 
equipments created ; all the material of war produced 
and collected together. The cannon that now rever- 
berate across the continent, a twelvemonth ago were 
sleeping ore In the mountains. The clothing of thou- 
sands was fleece upon the backs of sheep. As we 
look back, we can scarcely believe our own senses, 
that so much has been done ; although, at every 
single hour of it, it seemed as if little was being 
done,^ — for all the speed and all the power of this 
great government were not so fast and eager as 
our thoughts and desires were. 

A navy has sprung forth, almost at a word ; and, 



THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 251 

stranger still, by the skill of our inventors and naval 
constructors, a new era has been inaugurated iu 
naval warfare. It is probable that forts and ships 
have come to the end of one dispensation, and that 
the old is to give place hereafter to the new. 

The history of this year is the history of the com- 
mon people of America. It is memorable on account 
of the light that it throws upon them. We are fond 
of talking of American ideas. There are such things 
as American ideas, distinctive, peculiar, national. 
Not that they were first discovered here, or that they 
are only entertained here ; but because more than 
anywhere else they lie at the root of the institutions, 
and are working out the laws and the policies of this 
people. 

The root idea is this : that man is the most sacred 
trust of God to the world ; that his value is derived 
from his moral relations, from his divinity. Looked 
at in his relations to God and the eternal world, 
every man is so valuable that you cannot make dis- 
tinction between one and another. If you measure a 
man by the skiU that he can exhibit, and the fruit 
of it, there is great distinction between one and 
another. Men are not each worth the same thing to 
society. All men cannot think with a like value, nor 
work with a like product. And if you measure man 
as a producing creature — that is, in his secular rela- 
tions — men are not alike valuable. But when you 
measure men on their spiritual side, and in their 
affectional relations to God and the eternal world, the 
lowest man is so immeasurable in value that you can- 
not make any practical difference between one man 
and another. Although, doubtless, some are vastly 



252 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

above others, the lowest and least goes beyond your 
power of conceiving, and your power of measuring. 
This is the root idea, which, if not recognized, is yet 
operative. It is the fundamental principle of our 
American scheme, that man is above nature. Man, 
by virtue of his original endowment and affiliation to 
the Eternal Father, is superior to every other created 
thing. There is nothing to be compared with man. 
All governments are from him and for him, and not 
over him and upon him. All institutions are not his 
masters, but his servants. All days, all ordinances, 
all usages, come to minister to the chief and the king, 
God's son, man, of whom God only is master. There- 
fore he is to be thoroughly enlarged, thoroughly 
empowered by development, and then thoroughly 
trusted. This is the ximerican idea, — for we stand 
in contrast with the world in holding and teaching it ; 
that men, having been once thoroughly educated, are 
to be absolutely trusted. 

The education of the common people follows, then, 
as a necessity. They are to be fitted to govern. 
Since all things are from them and for them, they 
must be educated to their function, to their destiny. 
No pains are spared, we know, in Europe, to educate 
princes and nobles who are to govern. No expense is 
counted too great, in Europe, to prepare the govern- 
ing classes for their function. America has her gov- 
erning class, too ; and that governing class is the 
whole people. It is a slower work, because it is so 
much larger. It is never carried so high, because 
there is so much more of it. It is easy to lift up a 
crowned class. It is not easy to lift up society from 
the very foundation. That is the work of centuries. 



THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 253 

And therefore, though we have not an education so 
deep nor so high as it is in some other places, we have 
it broader than it is anywhere else in the world ; and 
we have learned that for ordinary affairs intelligence 
among the common people is better than treasures of 
knowledge among particular classes of the people. 
School-books do more for this country than encyclo- 
paedias. 

And so there comes up the American conception of 
a common people as an order of nobility, or as stand- 
ing in the same place to us that orders of nobility 
stand to other peoples. Not that, after our educated 
men and men of genius are counted out, we call all 
that remain the common people. The whole commu- 
nity, top and bottom and intermediate, the strong and 
the weak, the rich and the poor, the leaders and the 
followers, constitute with us the commonwealth; iu 
which laws spring from the people, administration 
conforms to their wishes, and they are made the final 
judges of every interest of the State. 

In America there is not one single element of civil- 
ization that is not made to depend, in the end, upon 
public opinion. Art, law, administration, policy, ref- 
ormations of morals, religious teaching, all derive, iu 
our form of society, the most potent influence from 
the common people. For although the common peo- 
ple are educated in preconceived notions of religion, 
the great intuitions and instincts of the heart of man 
rise up afterwards, and in their turn influence back. 
So there is action and reaction. 

It is this very thing that has led men that are edu- 
cated, in Europe, to doubt the stabihty of our nation. 
Owing to a strange ignorance on their part, our glory 



254 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

has seemed to them our shame, and our strength has 
seemed to them our weakness, and our invmcibihty 
has seemed to them our disaster and defeat. This im- 
pression of Europeans has been expressed in England 
in language that has surprised us, and that one day 
will surprise them. We know more of it in England 
because the English language is our mother tongue, 
and we are more concerned to know what England 
thinks of us than any other nation. 

But it is impossible that nations educated into 
sympathy with strong governments, and with the side 
of those that govern, should sympathize with the gov- 
erned. In this country the sympathy goes with the 
governed, and not with the governing, as much as in 
other countries it goes with the governing, and not 
with the governed. And abroad they are measuring 
by a false rule, and by a home-bred and one-sided 
sympathy. 

It is impossible for men who have not seen it to 
understand that there is no society possible that will 
bear such ex-pansion and contraction, such strains and 
burdens, as a society made up of free educated com- 
> mon people, with democratic institutions. It has been 
supposed that such a society was the most unsafe, and 
the least capable of control of any. But whether 
tested by external pressure, or, as now, by the most 
wondrous internal evils, an educated democratic peo- 
ple are the strongest government that can be made 
on the face of the earth. In no other form of society 
is it so safe to set discussion at large. Nowhere else 
is there such safety in the midst of apparent conflagra- 
tion. Nowhere else is there such entire rule, when 
there seems to be such entire anarchy. A foreigner 



THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 255 

would think, pending a presidential election, that the 
end of the world had come. The people roar and 
dash like an ocean. " No government," he would 
say, '' was ever strong enough to hold such wild and 
tumultuous enthusiasm, and zeal, and rage." True. 
There is not a government strong enough to hold 
them. Nothing but self-government will do it : that 
will. Educate men to take care of themselves, indi- 
vidually and in masses, and then let the winds blow ; 
then let the storms fall; then let excitements burn, 
and men will learn to move freely upon each other, as 
do drops of water in the ocean. Our experience from 
generation to generation has shown that, though we 
may have fantastic excitements ; though the whole 
land may seem to have swung from its moorings on a 
sea of the wildest agitation, we have only to let the 
silent dropping paper go into the box, and that is the 
end of the commotion. To-day, the flames mount to 
heaven ; and on every side you hear the most extrava- 
gant prophecies and the fiercest objurgations ; and 
both sides know that, if they do not succeed, the end 
of the world will have come. But to-morrow the vote 
is declared, and each side go home laughing, to take 
hold of the plough and the spade ; and they are satis- 
fied that the nation is safe after all. 

And we have come to ridicule the idea of danger 
from excitements. Where else was there ever a na- 
tion that could bear to have every question, no matter 
how fiery or how fierce, let loose to go up and down, 
over hill and through valley, without police or gov- 
ernment restraint upon the absolute liberty of the 
common people ? Where else was ever a government 
that could bear to allow entire free discussion ? We 



256 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

grow strong under it. Voting is the cure of evil with 
us. Liberty, that is dangerous abroad, is our very 
safety. And since our whole future depends upon 
our rightly understanding this matter, — the liberty 
of the common people, and the glory of the common 
people, — and since this government of our educated 
common people i« to be the death of slavery, and to 
spread over this continent an order of things for 
which in past experience there is no parallel, and for 
which men's ideas are not prepared, — we do well to 
take heed of tliis memorable year of the common peo- 
ple. For histories will register this year of 1861 - 62 
as the year of the common people of America. 

I. One year ago there fell a storm upon the great 
heart of the common people, which swayed it as the 
ocean is swayed. It lias not calmed itself yet. It was 
that shot at the American flag that touched the na- 
tional heart. No one knew before what a depth of 
feeling was there. We did not know how our people 
had clustered about that banner all their ideas of 
honor and patriotism and glory. We did not know 
how the past and future met and stood together upon 
that flag in the imagination of every American. In 
an hour all this was disclosed. And what was the 
manifestation of that hour ? All things that separated 
the common people of America were at once for- 
gotten. There rose up, with appalling majesty, the 
multitude of the common people. The schemes of 
treachery, the political webs that had been framed, 
went down in a moment ; and the voice of the com- 
mon people it was that called the government to be 
energetic, to take courage, and to rescue the land. 

But I would not have you suppose that the common 



THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 257 

people gave forth merely an unreasoning zeal, — a 
furious burst of patriotic emotion. The common peo- 
ple of the North had, and they still have, a clear, com- 
prehensive, and true idea of American nationality, 
such as we looked for in vain in many of the leaders 
of past times. They had taken in the right view of 
national unity. They had a right view of the trust 
of territory held in common by all, for all, on this con- 
tinent. They felt, more than any others, that Divine 
Providence had given to this people, not a northern 
part, not a middle ridge, not a southern section, but 
an undivided cotitinent. They held it, not for pride, 
not for national vanity, not to be cut and split into 
warring sections, but as a sacred trust, held for sub- 
limest ends of human happiness, in human liberty. 
And the instincts and intuitions of the common people 
it was that made this, not a struggle for sectional pre- 
cedency, but a struggle for the maintenance of the 
great national trust, and for the estabhshment of 
American ideas over the whole American continent. 
And our government felt that they could lean back on 
the brave heart of the great intelligent people. 

While, then, men of our own blood are ignorant 
and blind ; while even to this hour the ablest states- 
men in the British Parliament are declaring, though 
in a friendly spirit in most respects, that it were 
better that an amicable settlement and separation 
should take place, and that they should live apart who 
cannot live peaceably together, our common people 
are greater than parliaments or than ministers ; and 
they see, and feel, and know, that God has rolled 
upon them a duty, not of present peace, but of future 
stability, national grandeur, and continental liberty. 



258 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

This is the doctrine of the common people, and it will 
stand. 

For that idea our common people are giving their 
sons, their blood, and their treasure, and they will 
continue to the uttermost to give them. 

For this sake see what a common people can do. 
One of the most difficult things for any people to do, 
for any reason, is to lay aside their animosities and 
malignant feelings. But this great common people 
have laid aside every animosity, every party feeling, 
and all political disagreements ; and for one year 
they have maintained an honest unity. I am more 
proud of the substantial unity that has been wrought 
out in the North, than of any battle that has been 
fought. It is the noblest evidence of the strength of 
our form of government. 

The common people have given without stint their 
sons, their substance, and their ingenuity : and they 
are not weary of giving. They have consented pa- 
tiently to the interruption of their industries, and to 
all the burdens which taxes bring. Taxes touch men 
in a very tender place ; for human nature resides very 
strongly in the particular neighborhood where taxes 
anchor. And if anything takes hold of men and 
brings them to their bearings, it is the imposition of 
burdens that are felt in the pocket. I sometimes 
think that men can carry burdens on their hearts 
more easily than on their exchequer. But they have 
taken both the burdens of taxation and bereavements, 
they have given both blood and money ; and they are 
willing to bear the load as long as it is necessary to 
secure this continent to liberty. 

They have demanded of this administration which 



THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 259 

they themselves ordained, that it should not sparo 
them. The only thing that the people have ever 
been disposed to blame the government for has been, 
that it has not moved fast enough ; that it has not 
done enough. " Take more ; call for more ; do 
more ! " is the demand of the people upon the gov- 
ernment. 

They have accepted the most unwonted and dan- 
gerous violations of the fundamental usages of this 
land with implicit submission. They are a proud 
people, jealous of their rights ; a proud people, the 
flash of whose eye is like blood when they are wronged 
in their fundamental rights; and yet, the precious 
writ of habeas corpus has been suspended, and they 
have consented. They have been restricted in their 
intercourse to a degree altogether unprecedented, and 
they have judged it expedient to submit. 

They have submitted to the limitation of speech and 
discussion, — a thing most foreign to American ideas. 
The arrest of men without legal process or accusation, 
and their imprisonment and long duress without trial, 
— these are new in our times and in this land. And 
yet, under all these interruptions of our most grave 
and important principles and rights, the people have 
been calm ; they have trusted their government ; and 
they have been willing to wait. 

These are dangerous things, even in extremity ; 
but for their sakes who control the affairs of this na- 
tion, and that they might have the most unlimited 
power to crush the rebellion, and establish liberty, the 
common people, with magnanimous generosity, have 
yielded up these imperishable rights. 

When the whole national heart beat with gratifica- 



260 . FREEDOM AND WAR. 

tion at the arrest of men who had beeij at the root of 
this grand treachery, mark, I beseech of you, the 
bearing of the common people of America. If there 
was one thing about which they were expected to rage 
like wolves, it was this. Nothing in external circum- 
stances could be more irritating and aggravating than 
those exhibitions of foreign feeling which came to our 
knowledge. I know that the diplomatic language of 
the two governments was very smooth and unexcep- 
tionable ; and I am informed that the tone of many 
of the local papers of England was kind ; but all the 
English papers that I saw, with one or two exceptions, 
were of such a spirit that I will characterize them 
only by saying that good breeding was not common 
where the editors of them lived. If there was one 
single missile more offensive than another, it was 
eagerly sought out. Tried on the side of revenge ; 
tried on the side of national animosities ; tried by 
foreign impertinence and unkindness ; tried at home 
in the midst of treachery, in the midst of war, in the 
midst of troubles and burdens, and in the midst of an 
interrupted commerce, — mark the heroic conduct of 
this great American people. 

Government pronounced its judgment against the 
feelings and expectations of the common people. 
Slidell and Mason were to be given up. There was 
silence instantly, and thoughtfulness, throughout this 
land. Then came acquiescence, full, cheerful, un- 
complaining. I have yet to see a single paper that 
seriously, after the appearance of the letter of the Sec- 
retary of State, made one complaint or ill-natured 
remark. Such a thing was never before seen in the 
history of the world. Mason and Slidell might have 



THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 261 

been taken from Washington to Boston Harbor under 
the care of a snigle officer, witliout molestation from 
the common people of America. These are the com- 
mon people that they are pleased to call the mob of 
America ; but not among crowned heads and privi- 
leged classes, not among any other people on the earth, 
is there such stability, such order, such self-restraint, 
such dignity, and such sublime nobility, as there is 
among the educated common people of America. 
God bless them ! Under the terrible inflictions of 
battle, under griefs innumerable, in the midst of des- 
olations that go to the very heart of families, there is 
the same noble, patient, uncomplaining cheerfulness 
and devotion to this great cause. 

II. The history of this year has silently developed 
many convictions based upon great truths. It has, in 
the first place, revolutionized the whole opinion of 
men as to the relative military power of the Free 
States and Slave States of America. It was an al- 
most undisputed judgment, that the habits of the 
South bred prowess ; that they were chivalric ; that 
their educated men were better officers than ours ; 
and that their common people, in the hour of bat- 
tle, would be better soldiers than the laboring classes 
of the North. It never was our faith, it never was 
our belief, but that the laboring and educated com- 
mon people were just as much better for military 
development, when the time came, as for ordinary 
industrial purposes. Events have justified our im- 
pressions in this regard. 

Let us look, for a moment, at the line of battle. 
Passing by the earlier conflicts prematurely brought 
on, in which the advantage was, without good conduct 



262 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

on either side, in favor of Southern nien, what is the 
general conclusion from that line of conflicts that 
subsequently followed each other almost without in- 
terruption, from Hilton Head, Beaufort, Roanoke, 
Newbern, Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Somerset, Nash- 
ville, Island Number Ten, Pittsburg Landing ? 

Without further particularizing, what have been 
the general results of this series of conflicts ? The 
rebels are swept out of the upper and eastern parts of 
Virginia. They have lost one portion of North Caro- 
lina. Their seaboard is almost taken from them. 
They have been driven from Kentucky and Missouri, 
and in Tennessee they are close pressed on Memphis 
itself. They are on the eve, apparently, of losing the 
great metropolis of the Southwest. And has there 
been one single field in which Northern endurance 
and courage have not been made to appear eminent 
over Southern ? In the battle of Pittsburg Landing 
what a disparity there was in generalship between the 
North and the South ! That battle was won by the 
soldiers. The Southwestern men had every advan- 
tage in military skill, and on our side the only advan- 
tage was that we had men who would not be beaten. 
Our soldiers had little help of generalship. It was 
hands, and not brains, that conquered there. 

This matter, then, will, from this time forth, stand 
on different ground. It is not for the sake of vain- 
glorying that I make these allusions. If it were not 
that I have a moral end in view, I should think 
them unseasonable ; but we shall never have peace 
until we have respect, we shall never have respect so 
long as a boasting Southern effete population think 
that they can overmaster Northern sturdy yeomen. 



THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 2G3 

When they know what Northern muscle and blows 
mean, they will respect tliem ; and when they respect 
tliem, we shall be able to live in harmony with them : 
and not till then. 

But there are many other things that have been 
evolved in the history of the year. There have been 
convictions wrought in the minds of the thinking 
common people that will not be easily worn out. 
There is coming to be a general conviction, that men 
brought up under the influence of slavery are con- 
taminated to the very root, and that they cannot make 
good citizens of a republic. The radical nature of 
slavery is such as to destroy the possibility of good 
citizenship in the masses of men. Exceptions there 
are, because even in the Slave States there are large 
neighborhoods where slavery does not exist, and where 
many men are superior to their circumstances. But 
the average tendency of slave influences is to narrow 
men ; to make them selfish ; to unfit them for public 
spirit ; to destroy that large patriotism from which 
comes the feehng of nationality. 

I think there is a widening conviction, that slavery 
and its laws, and liberty and its institutions, cannot 
exist under one government. And I think that, if it 
were not for the impediment of supposed constitu- 
tional restrictions, there would be an almost universal 
disposition to sweep, as with a deluge, this gigantic 
evil out of our land. The feeling of the people in this 
matter is unmistakable. The recommendation of the 
President of these United States, which has been cor- 
roborated by the resolution of Congress, is one of the 
most memorable events of our history. The fact that 
a policy of emancipation has been recommended by 



264 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

the Chief Magistrate, and indorsed by Congress, 
cannot be over-estimated in importance. Old John 
Quincy Adams hfted his head in the grave, methinks, 
when that resolution was carried, — he that was almost 
condemned for treason because he dared to introduce 
in Congress a subject that looked toward emanci- 
pation. Last Friday — a day not henceforth to be 
counted inauspicious ■; — was passed the memorable bill 
giving liberty to the slave in the District of Columbia. 
One might almost say, if the President had signed it, 
" Lord, now let thy servant depart in. peace, accord 
ing to thy word ; for^jnine eyes have seen thy salva- 
tion." It is worth living for a lifetime to see the 
capital of our government redeemed from the stigma 
and shame of being a slave mart. I cannot doubt that 
the President of the United States will sign that bill. 
It shall not shake my confidence in him, but it cer- 
tainly will not change my judgment that it should be 
signed, if he does not sign it. It would have been 
better if it had been signed the moment that it was 
received ; but we have found out by experience that 
though Abraham Lincoln is sure, he is slow ; and that 
though he is slow, he is sure ! 

I think that it is beginning to be seen that the 
North, for its own sake, must exert every proper con 
stitutional influence, and every moral influence, to 
cleanse the South from the contamination of slavery. 
What gambling-houses and drinking-saloons are to the 
young men of a neighborhood, taking hold of their 
animal passions, and corrupting them where human 
nature is most temptable, undermining their charac- 
ter, and wasting their stamina, that Southern marts 
are to our common people. The animal parts of our 



THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 2G5 

nature come naturally into sympathy with the South. 
The Southern institution is an academy of corruption 
to the animal feelings of the whole people, and it will 
contiime to be throwing back into our system elements 
of inflammation and trouble as long as it exists. I 
dread such a settlement of this controversy as will 
follow whenever all malignant passions and political 
machinations shall have swept the bad men of ihe 
North and of the South together again for future 
legislation. 

We have begun, also, to suspect another thing, 
which we shall learn more and more thoroughly ; and 
that is, that hereafter, in this nation, the North must 
prevail. For the North is the nation, and the South 
is but the fringe. The heart is here ; the trunk is 
here ; the brain is here. The most exquisite compli- 
ment ever paid to New England was in the secret 
scheme and machination of the leaders of the rebel- 
lion, which it was supposed would be successful. 
They meant to threaten secession and war, and arouse 
a party in the North that would unite with them, and 
then reconstruct in such a way as to leave New Eng- 
land out, and take all the rest of the nation in. Had 
they succeeded, they would have been in the condi- 
tion of a man that should go to bed whole at night, 
and wake up in the morning without his head ! For 
the brain of this nation is New England. There is 
not a part that does not derive its stimulus and sup- 
ply from that fountain of laws and ideas. Well may 
they wish to exclude from their corrupt constitution 
and laws that part of this nation which has been the 
throne of God. Well may they desire to separate 
themselves from that portion of our country which 



12 



266 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

has been the source of all that is godlike in American 
history. But I do not think that they will cut off our 
head. And hereafter I think it will be felt more and 
more that the North is the nation : not New England, 
but the whole North from ocean to ocean, — all that is 
comprised in the Northern loyal Free States. It is 
the foundation of industry ; it is the school of intelli- 
gence ; it is the home of civilized institutions ; it is 
the repository of those principles which are the foun- 
dation of our political fabric ; and if we hope to save 
the government and our peculiar ideas, it is the North 
that must save them, and not the South. We may 
just as well say it as to disguise it. Whatever may 
be wise or unwise, expedient or inexpedient, in times 
of party management, I do not hesitate to say, and I 
repeat it again and again, that the North is this na- 
tion, and that the North must govern it : not against 
the Constitution, but by the Constitution ; not against 
law, but through law ; not for selfishness, but for the 
well-being of the whole ; not to aggrandize itself, but 
to enrich every State in the Union, from the North to 
the South, and from the East to the West. The South 
are prodigal sons ; they are wasters ; they are destroy- 
ers. The North has conservative forces ; and now 
that she has come to govern, she will be derelict, she 
will forfeit every claim to respect, and she will bring 
the judgment of God on her head, if she hesitates to 
take the government, and maintain it till she has 
carried the principles of the American people of this 
continent triumphantly through. 

Since, then, her ascendency means liberty, the thrift 
of the common people, and the progress df civilization, 
the North owes it to the nation itself not to yield up 



THE SUCC1':SS OF AMERICAN DEI^IOCRACY. 2G7 

that ascendency. One side or the other must prevail. 
Let it be that side tliat carries forward to the future 
the precious legacies of the past. There go two prin- 
ciples looking to the future. One is represented by 
our flag, and all its starry folds. Liberty ; democratic 
equality ; Christianity ; God, ihe only king ; right, 
the only barrier and restraint ; and then, God and 
right being respected, liberty to all, from top to bot- 
tom,, and the more liberty the stronger and safer, — 
that is the Northern conception. And that is the 
precious seed that shall pierce to State after State, 
rolling westward her empire. What has the North 
done ? Look at Michigan ; look at Ohio ; look at In- 
diana ; look at Illinois ; look at Wisconsin ; look at 
Iowa. These are the fruits of Northern ideas. And 
where is the South ? Look at Missouri ; look at 
Texas. See what States she rears. And which of 
these shall be the seed-planter of the future ? Which 
shall carry the victorious banner ? Shall the South 
carry her bastard bunting, bearing the pestiferous seed 
of slavery, degradation, and national rottenness ? or 
shall the North, advancing her banner, carry with her 
stars and stripes all that they symbolize, — God's glory 
in man's liberty ? I think — and I thank God for it 
— that the great heart of this people is beginning to 
accept this destiny, and that it is becoming the pride 
of their future. 

There is but one other thing that I will say, for I 
do not wish to weary you with too long a discussion 
of that which is dear to my own heart as life itself. 
While there have been many incidental ills and evils 
occasioned by the present conflict, it has had one good 
effect in amalgamating this heterogeneous people. 



268 FEEEDOM AND WAK. 

Since we have received millions from foreign lands, 
there have been some political jealousies toward those 
belonging to other nations. I think you have seen the 
end of that most un-American Native-Americanism. 
There is not one nation that has not contributed its 
quota to fight the battj^s of liberty. The blood of the 
Yankee has met the blood of the Irishman. Right 
along-side of our Curtis was the noble Sigel. Right 
by the side of tlie wounded American lay the wound- 
ed German. Two tongues met when they spoke the 
common words, Country, Liberty, God, and Freedom. 
And now there is no foreign blood among us. They 
are ours. They have earned their birth here. Their 
nativity is as if our mothers bore them and nursed 
them. America has received all her foreign popula- 
tion, now, with a more glorious adoption, and they 
are our kindred. God be thanked Tor this substantial 
benefit. War, with all its horrors, is not without its 
incidental advantages. 

Is the year, then, that is just past, to have a parallel 
and sequence in the year that is to come ? What is to 
be the future ? What are our prospects and hopes ? 
I am not a prophet. I cannot lift the veil from what 
is before us. I can only express my own judgment. 
Perhaps you think I am sanguine. I think I am not 
sanguine, though I am hopeful. And yet I have no 
other thought than that victory awaits us at every 
step. We are able to bear our share of defeat. If 
the blessing of liberty is too great to be purchased at 
so cheap a price, let God tell us the price, and we are 
ready to pay it. "Vye have more sons to give. We 
can live lower, and on less. Our patience is scarcely 
drawn upon. The sources of our prosperity are 



THE SUCCESS OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY. 2G9 

liardly touched. Aiid I tliiiik I may say for you, and 
the great American common jDCople, " TTe will give 
every dollar that we are worth, every child that we 
have, and our own selves ; we will bring all that we 
are, and all that we have, and offer them up freely ; 
but this country shall be one,, and undivided. We 
will have one Constitution, and one liberty, and that 
universal." The Atlantic shall sound it, and the 
Pacific shall echo it back, deep answering to deep, 
and it shall reverberate from the Lakes on the Xorth 
to the unfrozen Gulf on the South, — " One nation ; 
one Constitution ; one starry banner ! " Hear it,- 
England! — one country, and indivisible. Hear it, 
Europe ! — one people, and inseparable. One God ; 
one hope ; one baptism ; one Constitution ; one gov- 
ernment ; one nation; one country; one people, — 
cost what it may, we will have it! 



XII 



CHRISTIANITY IN GOVERNMENT.* 



" The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to 
•preach the Gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, 
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, 
to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the 
Lord." — Luke iv. 18, 19. 




ND he began to say unto them, This day is 
this scripture fulfilled in your ears." 

This could mean nothing less than that 
he applied to himself this scripture, and 
accepted it as a proper description of his own work, — 
as a proper unfolding of the aims and intentions of his 
work on earth. 

Consider the width and scope of this memorable 
passage from the prophet Isaiah. Good tidings to 
the poor, — by far the greatest in number of all the 
people in the world ; healing to the broken-hearted, — 
the children of sorrow ; deliverance to captives ; in- 
struction to the ignorant ; release to those in slavery; 
— this he declared to be that for which he was or- 
dained. It was not for the regeneration of society 
first, and from the outside ; it was not for the incul- 

* June 29, 1862. Slavery had been prohibited in the Territories, June 
20, and the Confiscation Act was pending. 



CHRISTIANITY IN GOVERNMENT. 271 

cation of an exact system of trutli ; it was not for the 
family ; it was not for any objective and usually un- 
derstood thing, that he came. A moral purpose, 
comprehending all these, and underlying them all, 
he announced as being the drift and the genius of 
his ministry. It may be said that in this annuncia- 
tion our Saviour declared his congregation, — those to 
whom he came to preach. He gathered together, as 
it were, round about him, the classes to whom he 
intended to minister, and for whom he had a special 
message. 

Christ declared God, then, in him, to be on the side 
of those hitherto despised and neglected, — the great 
under-class. He, as it were, set aside those whom 
hitherto men had esteemed and counted honorable. 

The first class to whom his mission related con- 
sisted of those that were bruised, — the multitude that 
were in slavery, and that were beaten by cruel mas- 
ters, as if they were but oxen, or hide-tough asses ; 
men that were mere beasts of burden. The world was 
full of such. Almost every heathen nation had slaves. 
It was so in the civilized nations as well as in the 
savage. There was no difference as to 'the fact be- 
tween barbaric peoples and refined. As to numbers 
and treatment, there were incidental differences. But 
slavery was almost universal ; and Christ declared, 
"I come for the slaves." 

The next class was even greater than this. It was 
that which was composed of the mentally blind, — the 
ignorant. The Gospel is a common-school Gospel. 
Christ came as an educator. He came to strike 
through the narrow and opaque human mind with 
that intelligence which should carry, not simply knowl- 



272 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

edge of figures and letters, but the Ccapacity to know 
whatever it was necessary that men should know. 
His mission, then, was to the million ; for then, as 
now, the million were made up of the ignorant. Men 
have always been crude and unameliorated in the 
mass. They have lived chiefly among the lower no- 
tions. In regard to all but one in a million since the 
world began, it is true that they have been but Uttle 
better than mere intelligent animals. It was time that 
some one should look after these ; for they were the 
most neglected and uncared for of any class of people 
on the face of the earth. 

The next for whom he declares that he came were 
the captives. They may be supposed to differ from 
those who are bruised in bondage. They were politi- 
cal captives. They were men that were incarcerated. 
They were the wretches whom governments, for va- 
rious reasons, had deprived of their natural rights. 
Every government of old, and not very old either, has 
had its camps and castles of miserable victims of jeal- 
ousy, fear, cruelty, revenge, avarice, and ambition. 
Some have been bad, doubtless ; although, if all that 
deserved imprisoning had gone to prison, there would 
hardly have been enough left to be jailers, in many 
periods of the world. But, in fact, captives have in- 
cluded some of the best blood of humanity. Some of 
the noblest of all the world's spirits have been the en- 
dungeoned. Prison histories will be the most affect- 
ing histories, I think, when we come to read where 
God educated his heroes. In that last day of exhibi- 
tion and judgment, when the first shall be last and the 
last shall be first, when God calls for thrones and 
those that sat on them, as we open our eyes to behold 



CHRISTIANITY IN GOVERNMENT. 273 

regal splendor, what a squalid set will dodge past the 
light and glory of the eternal throne to hide them- 
selves in everlasting darkness ! And when God calls 
for dungeons and prisons, and we look to see a limp- 
ing, miserable crew of hideous criminals, behold, they 
shall be led on by the noblest forms of martyrs ! Men 
that are now crowned by the glorified and radiant 
dignity of patriots ; unbribable men ; men wilHng to 
do, and willing not to do, (which is a thousand times 
harder than to be willing to do,) for the sake of their 
country ; men willing to go forward though it was 
unto death, and willing to stand still though to stand 
still was to live when life was the curse of existence, — 
they shall be found in the roll of captives. And of 
those who have suffered vexations and limitations and 
wrongs ; of that great unbefriended and unjustified 
mass of men that in every age and nation liave been 
the disgrace of government, and the torment of good 
men, — of these Christ says, "My Gospel sends me 
for their behoof: I came for them." 

Lastly, and most comprehensively, he declared that 
he came for the poor. The poor have always been the 
least esteemed and the least estimable, judged by what 
they have been actually able to put forth. And in 
every age, and almost wholly, they have been a mere 
soil out of which other men's prosperities have grown. 
For a few classes have regarded themselves as carrying 
in themselves pretty much all that God could be sup- 
posed to be interested in in this world. The masses 
of men have always and everywhere been despised or 
patronized with the same kind of pitying condescen- 
sion with which men patronize and pet dogs and 
horses. The poor are a pretty good poor, if they do 

12* B 



274 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

not want to be anything but poor. Nobles like poor 
people when they will work for them, and give them 
no trouble. And kings say kind words to the poor if 
they are humble, and if they pay their taxes wilUngly 
and promptly. And so it has been with the degraded 
classes and with the refined classes, the world over. 
The poor have been a very good poor if they would 
stay poor, and do the duties that they were told to do, 
without grumbling. If they would be soil, and let 
other men root in them and grow strong upon them, 
they have been liked very well. The poor have, from 
the beginning, been the neglected and the undeveloped. 
The unlovely traits, the incongruities of disposition, 
the tendencies to vices, have been among them : not 
exclusively but largely. Whatever fruit there can be 
in ignorance has belonged to the masses that have 
been poor. 

It has been a part of the universal egotism of man 
to assert his own superiority over those round about 
him. And when he unites himself to a profession, it 
does not take away his inclination to do this. It aug- 
ments it. Professionalism narrows men. In law, in 
medicine, in the ministry, in art, in every profession, 
men are narrowed, because professionalism girds them 
with an iron hoop of selfishness. By as much as a 
man excludes others from him, by so much he is 
narrowed. 

All classes in society have done what professions 
have done. The same selfishness that is in the indi- 
vidual develops, throws out its branches, and bears its 
fruit in classes. There has been a middle class, a 
bottom class, and a top class, and each has had the 
same bad peculiarity ; but arrogance and pride are 



CHRISTIANITY IN GOVERNMENT. 275 

more developed in the upper classes than in the lower. 
The educated and reiined classes, when they hear that 
God thinks of the world, suppose that he thinks of 
such as they are. They suppose that, when he looks 
upon the world, he sees the best specimens of men. I 
think he sees them too. I think he loves rich men, 
and wise men, and proud men, and selfish men. I 
think he loves crowned and sceptred kings. I think 
he loves everybody and everything that he has made. 
He takes care of the sparrow, and even of the worm. 
There is nothing in the world that God does not have 
a kind consideration for. And in the human family I 
do not think he looks upon any class and says, " You 
are my peculiar people." Everywhere throughout the 
globe God has a heart for all. 

This is not to be confounded with that preference 
which is based upon character. What I mean is, not 
a preference of personal love growing out of disposi- 
tion, but that general benevolence of which God speaks 
in Christ Jesus when he says, " He makes his sun to 
rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on 
the just and on the unjust." 

These, then, are those to whom Christ declared that 
he had a mission, — the great underlying classes in 
society, — the unfortunate, the neglected, the un- 
lovely, the ignorant, the undeveloped, — they whom 
the educated men of history have always been pleased 
to regard as the inferior specimens of the human fam- 
ily. He says, " I am commissioned and ordained to 
preach the Gospel to the poor, to comfort those that 
are in affliction, to release those that are in captivity, 
to bear intelligence to those that are in ignorance, to 
destroy the injustice of those that hold men in bond- 



276 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

age. I am sent to proclaim the acceptable year of the 
Lord to all those that are low down among the inhab- 
itants of the earth." 

Why should our Saviour have chosen such a con- 
gregation ? Not because he had no sympatliy with the 
educated, the refined, and the ennobled. He had : 
not with the selfishness, and pride, and arrogance 
which refinement often breeds in men ; but with the 
men themselves, — for a man is not any the worse in 
the sight of God because he is educated. In preach- 
ing for the poor and neglected classes, we sometimes 
are liable to leave the impression, tliat it is a man's 
misfortune not to be poor and neglected, as if there 
was some fault in being refined and cultured. So far 
from that being true, the more perfectly developed a 
man is, the nearer he comes to God's ideal in men. 
We are to strive for refinement, and educate our chil- 
dren to do it. It belongs not to any favorite class, 
but to the whole race. It is not, therefore, because 
God has no sympathy with the educated, that he de- 
clared that the mission of the Gospel was to the poor 
and the low. 

Nor is it because he is ignorant of the vices and the 
moral loathsomeness of the masses of men. It some- 
times is the case that men preach about the poor, and 
imprisoned, and ignorant, and think it a bright and 
blessed thing as long as it is merely a matter of 
preaching and sentimentality ; but that, when they 
go into the midst of these classes, when tlie ideally 
poor become real poor people, when they preach among 
the Caffres and Hottentots, (where to induce a man 
to put on a shirt is evidence of his conversion, and 
where men are obstinate and bitter and malignant 



CHRISTIANITY IN GOVERNMENT. 277 

and unmanageable in proportion to their ignorance,) 
and when they see the mischiefs that belong to nn- 
instructed poverty, are discouraged and disgusted. 
Now, our Saviour cannot be supposed to have been 
unacquainted with these mischiefs ; and yet he looked 
upon the unfortunate subjects of them as a mother 
looks upon her child that is diseased and covered with 
sores. She does not love the sores, but she loves the 
child all the more because it needs medicament and 
nursins: care. 

Nor is it to be supposed that the Saviour meant that 
there was, on the part of God, any repugnance to gov- 
ernment, to society, to justice, to moral discrimina- 
tions. From everlasting to everlasting, Jehovah is a 
God of law, — a God that will by no means clear the 
guilty. God ordained these things, but he impartially 
regards all mankind as common children ; as the 
members of one family, of which he is the Head and 
Father, and of which they are the brethren. And 
although we differ from each other in endless particu- 
lars, we resemble each other in yet more particulars. 
For each carries the line and lineament of the Father ; 
each has the germ of future growth ; each has the 
element of immortality. And God sees that these ob- 
scure but divine qualities unite men, and are of more 
importance than those incidental developments by 
which one surpasses another. 

In providing for the whole, God aims at the lowest, 
not because they are more amiable or more lovely, 
but because he would lift up the whole. If you 
wanted to raise a building, it would not be wise for 
you to put your screws under the roof, and raise that 
first, thinking that the walls would follow it up. 



278 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

They would not. If you wish to raise the roof of a 
building, put the screws under the foundation ; for 
that which carries the foundation up an inch will 
carry the roof up an inch, and that which carries the 
foundation up a foot will carry the roof up a foot. If 
the top leaves of a tree begin to wither, and I wish to 
remedy the evil, I shall go to work, not at the top 
of the tree, but at the root. For he who takes care 
of the root of a tree takes care of the top. And in 
human society that system which is comprehensive 
enough to take care of the bottom will best take care 
of the top. It is folly to apply agencies at the top, 
supposing that they will necessarily strike down. 
They will not. You cannot boil a caldron downward 
with fuel, but you can upward. It is impossible to 
get a radiation from an upper class that shall en- 
lighten a lower. The educated portion of a commu- 
nity is liable to be arrogant, exclusive, and dominat>- 
ing; and in order to raise society as a whole, there 
must be a moral system whose genius is to exert its 
forces upon those of every class. Is it not reasonable 
to suppose that a system that is capable of taking care 
of the worst, will be much more abundantly capable 
of taking care of the best ? The Saviour came to the 
neglected, the despised and despoiled, the poor, the 
helpless. He was radical. He began at the root. 
He addressed himself to the bottom. He preached a 
Gospel that had regard, not to a few, not to the more 
prosperous, not to the wealthy, not to those who could 
make return for his efforts in their behalf, but to those 
who constituted the foundation of society, and who, 
if carried up, would be lifted by a system of moral 
influences that must carry up the whole of society. 



CHRISTIANITY IN GOVERNMENT. 279 

• If the tendency of the Gospel of Christ, then, is to 
be on the side of the masses of men, we might expect 
tliat history would reveal the fact ; we might expect 
that results would show such to have been its ten- 
dency. Such has been the tendency of it from the 
time when the Apostles went forth from Jerusalem to 
preach it to this day. It may be said that the history 
of the preaching of the- Gospel has been a history of 
the development of Christian democratic ideas. Since 
the day of Christ, the Gospel has created an era in the 
history of men. Even in the most corrupt periods of 
the Church, even in those times when the Church was 
asp'iring to monarchy and despotism, and seeking to 
be universal, — even then the Gospel carried with it a 
democratic element. The bottom even of the Catho- 
lic Church was democratic, though the top was aristo- 
cratic. The same is true in our day of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church. Its government is so intensely 
aristocratic that the popular element is hardly felt in 
it ; but the worship is more democratic than that of 
almost any other church in the world. In that Church 
the democratic and aristocratic elements are strange- 
ly combined. I do not say this, of course, for any 
purpose except to show that it is possible to unite 
in one system two opposite elements, by uniting them 
in different parts of the same organization. In the 
worst days, Papacy, little of the Gospel as it carried 
in its worship, could not help carrying with it the 
element of democracy. From the hour in which it 
was whispered by priest or bishop in the ear of living 
or dying men, that it pleased God to give his life, in 
his Son, for every human creature, it was inevitable 
that those men should infer that then every human 



280 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

being was king. It was not for the generic, but for^ 
the specific, that Christ died. He died for men, not 
as a mass, but as individuals. I love my children, but 
I never love them as a group. I always love them 
as individuals of that group. God loves the world, 
and all that it contains of men, but he loves them as 
individual men, and calls tliem by name. And the 
death of Christ was for men individually. And from 
the moment that a man hears this story, " You are of 
so much importance that the Lord of glory came down 
from heaven, and poured out his life that you might 
live," — from that moment he beholds his right of 
thrones. He is a king's son. 

This democratic element of the Gospel has been 
strikingly manifested in the history of the past, and it 
is being still more strikingly manifested in the history 
of the present. The more the Gospel is preached, the 
more does it develop the great element of Christian 
democracy. (I am not to be understood as speaking 
of democracy in any party sense. I would cleanse the 
word from all the stains that have been brought upon 
it by its misuse in politics.) All things work for the 
welfare, the rights, the education, the empowering of 
the masses of men, or the common people. Schools 
work for the common people. Commerce works for 
them. Industries of every kind work for them. In- 
ventions work for them. Competitions work for them. 
Quarrels of kings work for them.. Quarrels of nobles 
work for them. The armies raised by despots to en- 
slave their own subjects teach those subjects how to 
use arms, and by and by to defend their own rights. 
Reformations work for them, and declensions work 
for them. Everything runs down hill to the bot- 



CHRISTIANITY IN GOVERNMENT. 281 

torn, where tlio groat mass of the common people 
are. Now, in our day, the evidence is overwhelming 
of that which Christ declared of himself, ^ — that ho 
came to preach a Gospel for mankind ; not for refined 
classes, but for those that most need it, — the poor, the 
helpless, the enslaved. He is revealing it by history 
more astonishingly than by his Word. 

All the world over, the tendency of things is, not 
toward the good of the few, but toward the good of 
the whole. The Czar of Russia is legislating steadily, 
not for class interest, but for universal interest. I 
regard Russia as one of the most extraordinary exam- 
ples of this tendency in our age. Austria, that is de- 
termined not to work for Christ, is working for Christ 
all the time, as is shown in her recognition of certain 
moral principles which relate to the welfare of the 
common people, and in her granting to the common 
people certain rights and privileges. All Western 
Europe feels more and more the power of the common 
people. Even the astute Emperor of France is obliged 
to ask the common people if he may reign. He re- 
gards the will of the common people as a pilot regards 
a sand-bank or a rock, as a troublesome thing that 
must be steered around ; and he steers around it. 
And where he does go, is often not where he wants 
to go. And when any comprehensive policy is to be 
pursued in England, or France, or Italy, or even great 
Russia, the government is obliged to sound out, as. 
with a line and plummet, and see where the deep 
channels of the popular mind are, and to run in those 
channels. They cannot go just where they have a 
mind to ; for although crowns govern peoples, peoples 
govern crowns just as much, — and they are doing it 
more and more in every generation. 



282 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

Nor are the indications among us any less plain. 
Nothing in our midst can flourish that does not belong 
to the whole. Classes may be said to be like foun- 
tains. The water, conveyed by a secret pipe, throws 
itself into the air, and falls down sunned and radiant, 
into the upper shell. But that can hold but little, and 
it runs over, and the next shell catches it. Although 
that can hold more, it cannot hold it all, and it runs 
over again, and the next shell catches it. At last the 
big reservoir at the bottom catches the whole. That 
is broader and deeper than any of the basins above it. 
No fountain can play that undertakes to drink up its 
water, and give those beneath none of it. In our 
community that which belongs to a class is soon stran- 
gled or destroyed. In art, the man that attempts to 
paint to the exclusive notions of a class cannot suc- 
ceed. To the life of the artist two things are neces- 
sary, — money and fame ; and he cannot get these if 
he paints for the few, and not for the many. As a 
general fact, it is only the painters for the common 
people that can secure' eminence and support. In 
other words, art, without knowing what ails it, has 
been obliged to conform to this great democratic ten- 
dency, and work for the common people. Pleasure 
cannot be exclusive. Let an opera-house be built for 
the rich, to secure peculiar privileges to them, and it 
is cursed in the very method of its construction. But 
^et it be built for the masses, to give equal privileges 
to all, and it thrives. For a class of a hundred men 
that^own a million dollars each is not half so efficient 
in sustaining an establishment of that kind as a mil- 
lion men that come with their shilling apiece. It is 
not streams of water here and there that make the 



CHRISTIANITY IN GOVERNMENT. 283 

ground moist, but little drops tliat fall all over tlie 
surface. And it is not great streams of wealth that 
make communities rich, but the little drops that be- 
long to the innumerable hands of the common people. 
In this land, and in every land, railroads, if they 
would succeed, must be not for the exclusive 'good of 
the strong and intelligent, but for the good of the 
common people. Learning is of no great account that 
goes into its cell, like a worm into its cocoon, to spin 
there. Learning, to be of much use, must have a ten- 
dency to spread itself among the common people. It 
matters npt how solid or broad a man's learning may 
be, if he holds it for the benefit of the few, he must 
take an audience of a few. If he is select, he must 
put up with a select audience, and with the remunera- 
tion of a select audience. If a man of learning would 
turn his learning to a good account, as society is con- 
stituted, not here alone, but the world over, he must 
not be select : he must have something for all men. 
The books of the last thirty years might almost be set 
apart as books leavened with the spirit of the Gospel. 
In what regard ? In regard to its doctrines and mor- 
als ? No : in j-egard to its tendency to emancipate the 
lower classes. Take the books of Eugene Sue. I 
look upon them as corrupt ; as blasted with moral 
corruption. I do not think that such a man as he is 
competent to write of virtue, or anything of the kind. 
And yet I think his novels are all the more on that 
account memorable, as showing what is the power 
of the Gospel, in that, although his characters were 
detestable, and his scenes were inexpressibly bad in 
multitudes of instances, yet that for which he painted 
characters and organized scenes was the release of the 



284 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

ignorant and the poor. He carried bad medicine to 
men ; but, after all, he was working for them. And 
often bad men are fomid going in that direction. 
Take the poetry of the time of Pope and Dryden, — 
the hardest, the deadest, the most inhuman period 
of any history. Read their letters, and see what self- 
ishness they display ; how absolutely they ignore every- 
thing except class ; and with what utter contempt they 
speak of all that is not of their class. Take the litera- 
ture of the last twenty-five or thirty years. How 
genial it is ! How it leans toward the good of the 
whole ! It may be doctrinally wrong, it juay lack 
moral tone, it may carry with it influences that are 
harmful ; but, after all, its tendency is in the direction 
of the common good. And it is memorable to see how 
Christ is working through all these instrumentalities 
for the emancipation of men everywhere. 

I remark, once more, that Christians now have in 
their hands a criterion by which to judge of tlie prob- 
able developments of the future. Having a knowl- 
edge of what was the tendency of the Gospel in the 
days of Christ, and of what is its tendency now, we 
may understand what are to be its directions and 
developments in human society and life : not in its 
immediate results, perhaps, but in its final issues. It 
is to bear to the masses of men their rights. It is to 
guard their interests. They are to be instructed, edu- 
cated, empowered, ennobled by it. A man is safe just 
in proportion as you make much of him, and danger- 
ous in proportion as you permit him to be little. The 
spirit of the world, as represented in monarchical gov- 
ernments, is a spirit that fears a man, and treats him 
as a dangerous animal. Cardinal Mazarin, looking 



CHRISTIANITY IN GOVERNMENT. 285 

Upon men in the spirit of the institutions of his time, 
would have said, " They are brutes ; tlicy are .igno- 
rant and capricious ; it will not do to trust tlicni ; 
they must be watched and controlled.** A man look- 
ing upon men in the spirit of our institutions would 
say, " They are so ignorant, they are so circumscribed, 
that they are dangerous : take off their bands, and 
give them liberty." The way to make a man safe is 
to educate him, to develop him, to bring out what 
there is in him, to spread out his branches wider 
and wider ; not to hold him in, not to take anything 
away from him. If you want to make a man safe, 
give him more, instead of dimmishing what he has 
got. The more you give him, the safer he will be. 
The law of Christ, the spirit of our institutions, and 
the destiny of the time to come, is this : that men are 
to be made safe by being cultured ; by having their 
faculties made broader ; by being made better capable 
of self-government. 

In view of these statements, first : the Christianity 
of a nation is to be measured by the condition of its 
lower classes. That is not the way we count ; but 
we count wrong. In judging of the progress of 
Christianity, we are apt to judge by the number 
of churches, and ministers, and communicants, and 
eleemosynary institutions. These things, as having 
a certain validity, ar(4 not to be spoken of con- 
temptuously ; but, after all, it is not what is on the 
top of society, but the average condition of society 
at the bottom, that determines the Christianity of a 
nation. The condition of a nation as regards its 
masses will determine the spirit of that nation witli 
reference to Christianity. 



286 FREEDOM AND WAR. ^ 

The Christlikeness of Christianity itself is to be 
measured, not in symbols and institutions, but in its 
general spirit and influence. You should recollect 
that religion is never church, nor priest, nor doctrine. 
These are mere instruments that religion employs. 
Religion is the unembodied spirit of truth, of devo- 
tion. It is an invisible quality which is obliged to be 
incarnated for practical purposes. Institutions and 
ordinances and usages are but the outward form 
which religion uses, and they often become corrupt ; 
so that the Christianity of a community, as repre- 
sented by its usages and ordinances and institutions, 
may be gross and infidel. Sometimes men that the 
Church calls infidels represent Christ better than 
those that are in the Church ; because they repre- 
sent Christ most, not who represent the word of his 
doctrine most, but who represent his spirit most in 
their dispositions, — and, above all, that spirit which 
brought him from heaven, to give his life a ransom for 
many. The spirit of any church whose sole thought 
is to take care of its own communicants has not that 
spirit. We build our churches, and get everything 
fixed so as to make ourselves as comfortable as possi- 
ble, and gather our families in, and shut the door, and 
take care of those that are inside, and let those that 
are outside take care of themselves. We arrange all 
things just to our liking, and then say, " The church 
is in a good condition, and do not let us disturb it." 
And so the church sings its own lullaby ; and the 
minister puts his foot on it and rocks it, that it may go 
to sleep in peace. Its own ease and enjoyment seem 
to be the aim of the church ; and if you bring before 
it questions of duty, the evils that abound in the com- 



CHRISTIANITY IN GOVERNMENT. 287 

munity, and the claims of men outside of its pale, you 
are charged with being a disturber of the church, and 
with bringing into it topics that make discord among 
the brethren. The ideal of a prosperous church, 
often, is a church that acts on a principle of spiritual 
selfishness. 

Property is good when a normal use is made of it ; 
but when a man employs property as an instrument 
of selfishness, and becomes a miser and an avaricious 
man, then he does not make a normal use of it. Love 
of praise is right in certain degrees ; but an inordinate 
love of praise is not right. A taste for art is highly 
commendable where a man seeks it for the refinement 
of other men ; but it is far less so where a man seeks 
it for his own refinement. A man holds religion in 
the true spirit, when he holds it for the benefit of those 
about him, but not when he holds it for his own indi- 
vidual benefit. And a church is corrupted when it 
wants Christianity for its own peace, and not for the 
amelioration of persons that are not members of it. 

When a light-house keeper, on a stormy, dark, tem- 
joestuous night, is told to go into his attic and take 
care of the lantern, why does he receive such instruc- 
tion ? Because the ocean-biirdened ship afar oif, and 
a long way from home, is coming upon the coast. He 
is to do it, because wind-driven craft are creeping to- 
ward the land, and need the guidance of the light. 
It is for the sake of the imperilled mariner that he is 
sent to take care of the lantern. But suppose he 
should say, " I am instructed to take care of this 
light"; and should put up the shutters, saying, "Tlie 
wind shall not blow this light out " ; and should hang 
curtains over all the cracks, saying, " I will keep out 



288 FREEDOM. AND WAR. 

every breath of air " ! The light is safe, and it illu- 
mines the little room in which it burns ; but on the 
sea it is dark. He might just as well let the light go 
out ; for the only object in keeping it is that those 
on the deep who are approaching the shore may be 
directed by it. 

Now, churches are God's light-houses, and he says 
to them, " Shine out for the poor, the ignorant, the 
wretched, the neglected : let your light so shine be- 
fore men, that they may see your good works, and 
glorify your Father which is in heaven." But men 
say, " No, do not let it shine out." If the minister 
undertakes to shed its rays upon the evils of society, 
they say, " Take care, or you will do mischief. If 
you discuss that ragged abolition question in the pul- 
pit, you will disturb the peace of the church ; and 
then do you suppose we can sell our pews ? Why do 
you not preach the blessed Gospel of peace, instead of 
preaching a gospel that is all the time leading to dis- 
crepancies and troubles ? If you will not disturb the 
church, you shall thrive, and our pews will be filled 
with fashion and quality ; but if you insist upon intro- 
ducing agitating subjects continually, you will destroy 
your own prospects, and bur pews will be empty or 
filled with an ordinary class of people." My Master 
w^as rejected when he wa^ upon earth. When men 
beheld him, there was no comeliness in him. And as 
long as Christ comes to an unregenerated and wicked 
world, there will be men of infidel selfishness and am- 
bition and pride that will look upon him and say, 
" There is no comeliness in him." Such men do not 
like a Christ that turns things bottom side up. 

The integrity of a church is to be judged, not by 



CHRISTIANITY IN GOVERNMENT. 289 

a vagrant, unregulated, random, malignant, agitating 
spirit, but by its spirit toward the poor in its own and 
every neighborhood. Tlie church that, following the 
example of Christ, writes on its banner, " We are 
sent to preach the Gospel to the poor ; we are sent to 
open the prison door ; to give seeing to the blind ; to 
set at liberty those that are br^-ised ; to carry confu- 
sion to wrong, and rescue and release to the wronged," 
— the church that writes that on its banner has the 
spirit of the Gospel. If you have that spirit, you are 
Christ's indeed, but not otherwise. 

The condition of a nation is to be measured by the 
moral condition of the bottom, and not of the top. 
Ah ! my friends, we can perhaps bear measuring bet- 
ter than any other nation ; but we cannot bear it. 
There are many things in which we stand above all 
other nations. There are in our midst some of the 
ripest fruits of Christian culture. The general spirit 
of intelligence among our people, and of our demo- 
cratic institutions, takes into consideration to a consid- 
erable extent the welfare of the whole. There are in 
the developments of the age not a few auspicious signs 
that may well give us hope for the future. But re- 
member that there are influences opposed to Christian 
democratic tendencies in every nation. As long as 
there is selfishness in the bosom of men, as long as 
men are willing to put down everything that hinders 
their own personal aggrandizement, so long there is 
opposition to these tendencies in things political, as 
well as in things ecclesiastical ; and it is only the 
regenerating power of the Gospel that will transform 
selfishness, and that will bring safety to our times and 
people. 

13 s 



290 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

I know that we have revivals of religion. I thank 
God for the great revivals of '57-8. They were much 
reviled because they did not teach men to set the 
slaves free ; because, when a man was converted, he 
was not made an abolitionist. It would be as reason- 
able to revile dew because it did not act like rain. In 
a time of drought I would rather have a rain that 
would soak the ground two feet ; but if I could not 
have that, a rain that would soak the ground three 
inches would be better than nothing ; and if I could 
have nothing but dew, I would be glad even of that^ 
because that would keep the plants from exuding 
their juices and withering away. There are different 
qualities of revivals of religion : some are far better 
than others ; but there is nothing so bad in spiritual 
things as moral death. 

The tendency which inspires the passage which I 
have read, and which was the text of our Saviour, 
will exist in varying degrees of imperfection and 
weakness and irregularity ; but it is the characteris- 
tic feature of the Gospel wherever it goes. 

I cannot make a specific application of this subject 
to all the questions that are arising now ; but two 
things I can say. The first is this : that, as a matter 
of doctrine, it is important that you should have the 
spirit of benevolence which Christ had, and which his 
words teach you to have, by which the rights of all 
men, clear down to the bottom of society, are made 
dear and sacred. When you have that spirit, you will 
generally have a criterion by which to judge of what is 
right in specific cases. If you have not that spirit 
which shall lead you to desire the welfare of the 
masses of men, you will be arrogant and proud and 



CHRISTIANITY IN GOVERNMENT. 291 

selfish and worldly and corrupt ; but if you have it, 
it will become an interpreter to you as to your duty 
toward your fellows. 

The other thing is this : we are drifting now right 
on to days of trial. The very masses of this people, 
for whom the Gospel is a shield and mountain of bless- 
ing, are themselves turning against the poorer than 
they, and manifesting toward the African disgust and 
contempt. Those in our midst who have lately fled 
from the oppression of crowns and sceptres — peasants 
of Europe who have come to this country that they 
might secure the riglits of freemen — are turning to 
crush those beneath them, as they were crushed by 
their tyrannical lords. The swaying masses are giv- 
ing way to fears of a destruction of their interests by 
competition, and turning around to wrong God's poor, 
just as they have been wronged. They thunder when 
they look up, and blast when they look down. They 
rage against oppression upward, and practise it down- 
ward. The great State of Illinois has voted that no 
more black men shall come within her borders. A 
black man can have no sort of status or privilege 
there. And petitions are being circulated in other 
States with the view of preventing the blacks from 
entering those States. There seems to be a crusade 
getting up against the African. A party seems to 
be forming on this basis, and preparing to appeal to 
the worst and bitterest passions of men. It has not 
the groundwork of a single honorable principle. It 
is made of the very elements of hell. Its only basis 
is, hatred of the negro. That is its capital; and, as 
Ions: as there is facile communication between the 
infernal pit and the human heart, it will not lack 



292 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

capital. They who belong to this party want to wrest 
the government from its present hands by playing 
upon this one feeling, — the hatred of the people to 
the African. 

I do not say that the black man is to be received 
into equality with yourselves in marriage, and in other 
respects, and that he shall walk in society in the same 
conditions that you do. I would not take away that 
liberty which you already have with reference to white 
people. You *go with whom you please ; but you 
are kind to all men. You seek the companionship 
of such as are congenial to you ; but you recognize 
the rights of all men. Not everybody goes into your 
parlor ; but everybody is treated with respect by you. 
You have a right not to receive the low and ignorant 
on an equal footing with yourself ; but you have no 
right to trample upon them. I do not say that the 
African is your equal ; but this I say : God made the 
African, God made " niggers," Christ died for " nig- 
gers," and they will rise in the last day, and you and 
they will stand together to give account for all the 
deeds done in the body. They are a part of the hu- 
man family, and God loves them, and that great law 
of eternal love which is supreme in heaven, and which 
God himself never violates, is binding upon you in 
respect to them. And in this day, when corrupt party 
leaders are ready to sacrifice and tread down the rights 
of the poor, I stnnd up to say, in the name of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, that he came for them, and that, if you 
lay the hand of harm upon them, God will not hold 
you guiltless. 

I bethink me of that sentence which Christ spake, — 
" The first shall be last, and the last shall be first." 



CHRISTIANITY IN GOVERNMENT. 293 



In that great day of reckoning, there shall stand up 
many and many a slave, transcendent, and how 
radiant ! All that was earthly will be gone. Nothing 
will be seen but the tried and patient spirit that 
through long injury clung to Jesus, and sang and 
prayed in its own poor way, and clomb up to heaven, 
and there emerged in sweet emancipation. Over 
against him, squat like a toad, shall stand the master, 
that here was haughty and high and honored. And 
w^hile the master hops his way down to everlasting 
shame, the slave, that was a beast of burden here, 
now developed into the fair proportions of inward life, 
and standing in glory, shall shine like the stars of the 
firmament. 



XIII 



SPEAKING EVIL OF DIGNITIES* 




" They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities." —2 Peter ii. 10. 

N this passage the Apostle is setting forth the 
attributes of bad men. Among the marks 
of their evil life is the fact that they are liv- 
ing in passionate indulgences ; that they 
scorn the restraint of those that have moral authority 
over them ; that they are filled with pride and con- 
ceit ; and that they have a habit of evil-speaking of 
those who are in power. The term translated digni- 
ties signifies glories or eminences. It may include, 
and it does, doubtless, more than magistrates. It 
reaches up into the spiritual realm. But it certainly 
includes officers of civil government. Our observa- 
tion will teach us that there was great need that the 
Scriptures should enjoin upon men obedience, re- 
spect, and honor toward those who bear rule, and 
also abstinence from needless reproach and causeless 
revilings. 

There are many reasons why we, in our time, 
should have our attention called to this matter of 

* July 16, 1862. During the period of dissatisfaction after the disastrous 
defeats of McClellan on the Peninsula, ending July 1. 



SPEAKING EVIL OF DIGNITIES. 295 

duty. It is the duty of the minister of the Gospel 
to preach on every side of political life. I do not sa^ 
that he may ; I say that he must. That man is not a 
shepherd of his flock who fails to teach that flock how 
to apply moral truth to every phase of ordinary prac- 
tical duty. 

As our community is organized, as we are related 
to government, we stand exactly in antithesis to those 
to whom the Gospel was first preached. It was the 
duty of the Roman citizen not to make the laws, not 
to make officers, and not to hold either lawmakers or 
laws or officers under criticism, or in any sense under 
responsibihty. His duty was a virtuous life as a citi- 
zen, and obedience to the constituted powers. 

The same Providence that made every government 
hitherto has ordained that under which we live. And 
the fundamental principle of that government is that 
all authority is from the citizen, and that all officers 
are responsible to the citizen. It is your duty to 
make laws, and to make the administrators of laws. 
It is your duty to take care of the state, and to think 
for it. 

Now there are laid, in our day, upon every single 
Christian citizen obligations and duties which he can- 
not well discharge without ethical light. From whom 
shall he derive that light ? From any one that can 
give it to him. But from whom has he a right to de- 
mand it ? From those whose province it is to teach 
men how to apply moral truth to the conduct of their 
practical life. And therefore, in our government, and 
in the circumstances under which we live, the minister 
of the Gospel not only may, but must, teach men how 
to conduct themselves Christianly in the management 



296 * FREEDOM AND WAR. 

of political affairs. It is a branch of that duty which 
I am now to discharge, — to teach you how to conduct 
yourselves toward those who are in authority. 

We live amidst great excitements, which are tending 
to arouse the passions of men ; and should public dis- 
asters come, or should long disappointment follow our 
great exertions, and we be withheld from the realiza- 
tion of our most ardent wishes, we shall find our- 
selves surrounded by men that will lay no restrictions 
on their tongues, and there will be in us many feel- 
ings which will seek improper methods of expression. 
Let me, therefore, beforehand put you upon your 
guard in the use of your tongue. 

We are liable to mistake in the performance of 
duty ; for, as I have intimated, under our govern- 
ment it is the duty of the citizen to consider the 
conduct of officers, to debate the propriety of their 
measures, and to judge matters of law, policy, and 
administration. I hold that the great intelligent com- 
mon people are the tribunal before which, in the end, 
all these things must come, — yea, and morals and 
religion themselves ; for, in the evolution of God's 
providence, the Church is being held responsible, not 
merely for the public sentiment of single churches, but 
for that great public sentiment which exists outside of 
churches, an-d which is made by them. We need, 
therefore, instruction to lead us to do our duty, and 
— so far as we are set to judge — to criticise and con- 
demn ; and to lead us, also, to avoid the peculiar 
temptations which are incident to the discharge of our 
duties toward those in trust. 

Let me point, then, first, to some of the dangers to 
which we are liable. 



SPEAKING EVIL OF DIGNITIES. 297 

We are in danger of inconsiderate reproach, incon- 
siderate evil-speaking, of men in public stations. It is 
taken for granted, by many, that those who are not of 
our side are of course marks for any shafts that we 
may be pleased to send at them. It is taken for 
granted that we are to defend those whom we have 
put in power, and to lose no opportunity of attacking 
those whose election we opposed. 

The common laws of morality among neighbors, and 
certainly Christian canons, are almost dispensed with 
in that zeal and eagerness and inconsiderateness with 
which we inveigh against men that are discharging 
public functions, and that are not of our party nor of 
our interest. Men take up things hastily, without 
proof. If any evil thing reported of those in authority 
goes in the line of their prejudices, that is enough to 
give it credence with them. Now, to tell a thing for 
true which you do not know to be true, is to tell a lie ; 
and if you do it often, you make yourself a liar. And 
there is no lie that is so bad as a lie that is told 
against the reputation of a man. It is not enough 
that you say, " I heard it." If you only heard it, 
then you must report it as a thing heard. But, after 
you have told it without qualification, to put in the 
plea, "I supposed it was true," or "I did not know 
but it was true," is no justification for a heinous 
offence against good morals. And there is great lax- 
ness of honor, and certainly of justice, in the sentences 
which we are accustomed to pronounce, not only in 
our thoughts, but in our utterances, upon men that 
are in public places. We are ready to believe evil. 
Often men are anxious to hear things against those 
who are not of their 'choice. They feel a sort of en- 

13* 



298 ^ FREEDOM AND WAR. 

mity toward them, and they are glad, therefore, of an 
opportunity to speak against them. Hence they con- 
travene that fundamental law of charity which is laid 
down in the thirteenth of Corinthians. They do rejoice 
in finding evil and iniquity in another. It is sweeter 
than honey to their taste to find out some reportable 
thing prejudicial to men in authority. 

We are prone to employ unweighed language. We 
indulge in terms that are unwarrantable, except when 
applied to absolute crimes, toward men who are guilty 
of no crime, simply because we happen to dislike 
them. Language may sometimes be strong in its ap- 
plication to men where it is morally descriptive of 
their conduct, or where it conveys high moral judg- 
ment. There are no terms, however broad and strong 
they may be, that are so justifiable as terms of high 
Christian feeling, even if they be condemnatory. But 
more often our untempered language springs from our 
passions. It is temper that speaks. Sometimes one 
would be led to suppose that eminent men were incar- 
nate fiends, by the descriptions given of them. Every- 
thing hateful is attributed to them. They are almost 
stripped of human attributes. How, at last, are men's 
names associated with all that is most abhorred ! How 
does the imagination go on, kindling as it goes, forever 
picturing them as monsters ! There are men in this 
nation — some that are in office, and many that are 
not — who are, as it were, but hones to give a sharp 
edge to men's tempers and passions. And yet, when 
we come to see these very much abused men, how un- 
like they are, frequently, from that which we have 
been taught to suppose them to be. Let a familiar* 
instance be recalled from history. Do you not remem- 



SPEAKING EVIL OF DIGNITIES. 299 

bor the whirlwind of the times of Andrew Jackson ? 
I)o you not remember how terrible was the bitterness 
that was felt against him ? Turn back to the papers 
that describe his administration and personal conduct. 
Was there ever an adjective expressive of bitterness, 
was there ever language of violence, that was not em- 
jDloyed to heap obloquy on him ? Years have passed 
away. He has gone to his rest. We have formed 
different judgments. We have separated good from 
evil. And how does, the whole community look back 
and fervently wish that we might have one good 
month of his stalwart will, to drive on this languid, 
lagging war to victory ! for Andrew Jackson ! 
And yet I remember the day when I should have as 
soon thought of invoking the Devil as him ! And 
are we never to learn wisdom by these constant 
mistakes ? Are we never to cease to ridicule and 
Exaggerate the faults of those, or the supposed faults 
of those, who are elevated to places of authority, 
where they are assailable by the tongues of all men? 
Are we never to learn how prone we are to overcolor 
and overcharge ? 

The habit is sometimes indulged of invading the 
sanctity of the private life of public men. This- is 
peculiarly ungenerous. For they are placed before 
men so as to be searched by all eyes ; and they are 
helpless of concealment. Their private character and 
personal habits are almost the only refuge that is left 
to them ; and if these are invaded, they are robbed 
indeed. Men in public places are for the most part 
unable to enter into controversy, or make any defence 
against attacks upon their private motives and per- 
sonal conduct, and therefore it is the less honorable 
to make such attacks. 



300 FREEDOM AND WAK. 

The only exception that I can imagine is that 
where, by a gross and infectious immorahty, pubUc 
men are damaging the piibhc safety and welfare. 
Even under such circumstances exposition is seldom 
required under our elective system, where men 
should apply the corrective by the use of the vote 
rather than by the use of the tongue. I warn you, 
therefore, that it is unjust, ungenerous, and to the 
last degree wicked, to follow men in public places with 
persecution that touches their motives and private 
character. Their policy is open to all men's inquisi- 
tion : their motives are in their own souls, and with 
their God. 

Men are tempted to unjust language in regard to 
those who conduct public aifairs, because it is very 
natural to suppose that public managers are respon- 
sible for all the hinderances, and lets, and delays, and 
misfortunes of those affairs. We avenge our own 
selfish misfortunes upon those that we suppose are 
in some way connected with them. For we always 
want some one to blame ; and we always see to it that 
that " some one " is not ourselves. It was the custom 
of the Jewish priest to select two goats. One he slew, 
using its blood for various sprinklings. The other he 
laid his hand on, in the sight of the people, when it 
became the scapegoat for all their sins, and was hooted 
and driven into the wilderness. But what did the 
goat care for their execrations, when he could start 
for the grass of the wilderness, and. get out of their 
way ? When we want something on which to heap 
our sins and faults, we usually take public men, and 
they are our scapegoats, — only there is no wilderness 
into which they can run and browse. The disposition 



SPEAKING EVIL OF DIGNITIES. 301 

to blame, to find fault, to relieve ourselves by com- 
plaining of others, is a disposition that is universal. 
It is more or less partaken of by us all. 

We sympathize easily with fault-finders. There is 
a bad spot in the human mind, which is gratified 
by hearing evil reported of men. There are few 
who are sweet-minded enough to hate the tidings of 
evil in respect to others. And those who are advanced 
to publicity, those who are set in the magistracy, are 
particularly liable to be objects of reproach and abuse. 
In our form of government every officer is a success- 
ful man among several that are rejected. When a 
man is raised to any public place, there is not only a 
disappointed party, but there are individuals griev- 
ously disappointed ; and there are various reasons, 
quite disconnected from his administration, why many 
men on every side should employ their tongues in de- 
traction of him. There are many who, loving to hear 
evil of men, are .quickly caught by sympathy with 
those who are evil-speakers ; and then they soon 
become evil-speakers too. 

There are many reasons why we should be very 
scrupulous in this regard. 

In the first place, our public magistrates represent 
the whole welfare of the nation, and whatever lowers 
their dignity and authority, in some measure injures 
tlie entire public. Besides, in speaking against a 
magistrate, you are speaking not alone against that 
magistrate, but also against the interests that he holds 
in his hands and represents. 

Not only is a citizen bound to elevate to the magis- 
tracy those who are to bear rule, but, having done this, 
he is bound to help them in discharging their duty. 



302 FKEEDOM AND WAK. 

For public sentiment is to public officers wliat water 
is to the wheel of the mill. Where there is no public 
sentiment, an officer stands in vacuo. It is impossible 
for a law to be executed among you which is not con- 
current with your wish. It is impossible for any 
judge, representative, or civil magistrate to thor- 
oughly carry out any policy to which he is not incited, 
and in which he is not helped by the sympathy and 
encouragement of the community. Your duty is to 
assist, and not to criticise ; and that duty can never 
be conjoined with a bitter, name-calHng, revihng, 
censorious spirit. 

We are to bear in mind, also, how diffisrent a public 
trust is from what it seems to be to those outside who 
have never tried it. Consider how easy it is for 
people to preach who never have any preaching to do ! 
How" easy it is for people .to bring up children who 
never had any to bring up ! How easy it is for poor 
folks to spend rich people's money ! How easy it is 
for men out of office to tell people that are in office 
what they ought to do ! There is a universal conceit 
and arrogance in this respect. 

It is no sm^all thing for a man to stand in the centre 
of practical public duty. It is very different from 
standing in a private sphere. Elements are so many, 
interests are so conflicting, there are so many con- 
trary minds that are drawing hither and thither, 
that except in rare instances, where a man has a 
dominant will, following a clear and discriminating 
judgment, it becomes operose and burdensome to 
discharge public duties. We ought to remember this. 
It will qualify, somewhat, our severe words of con- 
demnation. 



SPEAKING EVIL OF DIGNITIES. 303 

It is especially to be considered how diiTorent,is 
practical administration from moral speculation about 
duty. . I recognize the necessity of moral speculation. 
I hold that it is the duty of every ethical /ceachor to 
raise up a theological idea of right and duty, and to 
maintain before the mind an ultunate standard of 
pevfection. Although, whei.L -yVQ attempt to realize the 
truth, we. L-over shall bring practice up to the full 
ideal of the truth, yet, by maintaining that ideal clear 
and strong in authority, we shall bring practice fur- 
ther up toward it than we otherwise should. Writers 
and preachers and teachers are to demand the utmost 
purity, the utmost truth, and the utmost honor. When 
they demand perfection in the application of a moral 
principle to any common state of human affairs, they 
forget that the incarnation of a principle is a gradual 
thing ; that it gi'ows ; that it cannot take place in an 
hour. You can preach broadly the doctrine of liberty 
to all men ; but if you undertake to administer fehe 
process of giving liberty to all men, you meet with ten 
thousand conditions that you have not taken into con- 
sideration, and that you are obliged to settle. In 
theory, you are not obliged to touch them. It is right 
and proper for you to say that liberty is every man's 
birthright, and that every man has a right to it ; but 
when you undertake to secure this right to every man, 
you will encounter difficulties innumerable which will 
hinder the immediate consummation of your purpose. 
We need moral speculation. The world cannot go 
too far in that direction. You will go higher if you 
aim at perfection than if you have before you a lower 
standard. But it must not be forgotten that the most 
that we can justly expect of men in places of trust, 



304 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

wljo are dealing with practical things, is, that they 
shall take a moral principle and carry it as far as they 
can under the circumstances. It is the duty .of all 
who are oiHside of public affairs to bear this in mind. 
For it is very easy, as I have found, to preach ; and, 
as I have also foiuid, it is not so easy to practice. It 
is very easy to tell meil-^^at to^ do when you haj d 
no responsibility. Advice is very easy ta give./ and 
usually very useless, in such cases. And we are to 
remember that men are not necessarily delinquent, or 
deserving of censure, because they fail to carry out in 
practice the fulness of that which they have themselves 
held as an ideal principle. 

We are to consider, too, how exceedingly burdened 
public men often are, and that what seems to us to be 
delinquency in duty may be owing to the fact that 
they have reached the limit of their power of execu- 
tion. We are to consider how perplexed a man may 
be as to what is his duty ; how he may be tied up by 
precedent ; how he may be overruled by law ; how 
many casuistical questions may come in to unsettle 
him. " It is always right," it is said, " to be true." 
That does not touch the question. The questioil often 
is. What is true ? It is said that it is always safe to be 
right. Why, yes, only tell me what is right, and I do 
not thank any man to insure me that it is safe to be 
right. The trouble is in ten thousand delicate situa- 
tions in which a man may be placed. What is right ? 
— there is where the rub comes ; and to repeat, and 
sound, and roll over and over again, these declarations 
of the safety of following right and truth, amounts to 
nothing. The trouble is to know what is true and 
what is right, in any practical conjunction of affairs. 



SPEAKING EVIL OF DIGNITIES. o05 

These cautions must not, however, be deemed a 
dissuasion from a Christian citizen's duty of vigilance 
and free criticism. They are only meant to put you 
on your guard, and teach you that you are judges, and 
not advocates ; and that all public men come to the 
bar of your mind for a just judgment, as a man comes 
to the bar of a court for the just judgment of the 
bench. Not with your passions, not with your inter- 
ests, not with a careless tongue, but with conscien- 
tiousness, with broad, kind, sweet feelings, must you 
look upon those who bear rule among you. Judge 
them with a righteous judgment. 

There are some who are so disgusted with the abuse 
of the tongue that they urge acquiescence in things as 
they are. They would have magistrates regarded and 
treated as men acting under the authority of God. It 
is said, " Receive them ; obey them ; let them alone : 
they are God's ministers." Some of them contrive to 
serve two masters, then! I admit that some magis- 
trates are of God ; but I do not believe that every 
magistrate is. I believe that government is of God ; 
but I do not believe that every man that wields the 
power of government is of God in any such sense that 
he is to be set free from our just inquisition and judg- 
ment. Nothing could be more ruinous, both to the 
public magistrate himself and to the public welfare, 
than any doctrine that teaches us to have a super- 
stitious regard for him, and to abstain from measuring 
his conduct, and from a proper and just use of the 
tongue respecting it. You are solemnly bound to 
hold all men to account whom you place in authority. 
To do this is the only safeguard under our institu- 
tions. Fatal would be that day in which the people 



306 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

should be taught to let men alone that were advanced 
to office and responsibility. Even excessive and harsh 
judgments, with all their faults, are better than no 
judgment at all ; but just judgment is better yet. 
We should fearlessly apply to public men the highest 
standards of measurement in character and conduct 
and policy. We should judge them, and they should 
know that we judge them, and they should fear our 
judgment because we judge them with a scrupulous 
care to be accurate, with the utmost caution in receiving 
the elements of fact on which we base our conclusions. 
If there was a Christian public sentiment, — and by 
this I mean, not a public sentiment formed by nom- 
inal Christians, but a public sentiment formed by the 
use of Christian standards of judgment, — if there was 
such a public sentiment, there is not a magistrate in 
the land that could stand' against it for a day, or an 
hour. Its justness would be its terribleness. And 
such a public sentiment there ought to be, both as a 
terror to evil-doers in office and as a praise and en- 
couragement to those occupying places of trust who 
seek to do well. 

While, therefore, I do not dissuade you from the 
use of your rightful prerogatives, or from your duty, 
in this regard, I do dissuade you from rashness, haste, 
and ill-natured and untempered judgments. Bear 
with those that are in authority. Uphold their hands. 
Give them as much confidence as it is possible for you 
to give. Do not trust them unwarrantably, beyond 
measure, or indiscriminately ; and yet it must needs 
be that you should trust them. 

Nor should you withhold trust because men do not 
realize your full ideal of what is right and noble. 



SPEAKING EVIL OF DIGNITIES. 307 

Men are wliat they are ; and you must take them 
with all 'their faults and limitations and inexperi- 
ences. You must take them for just what they are, 
and make the best of it. 

Meanwhile, there is a Christian duty of prayer for 
all that are in authority, which was never, it seems to 
me, so much obligatory as now. I am impressed, I 
am oppressed, with the critical position in which we 
are every day, more and more. I love my country. 
I love her noble institutions. I love the radical ideas 
from which those institutions sprung. It seems to me 
that American ideas — not the base and refuse stuff 
that has sometimes passed under that term, but in 
verity American ideas — come nearer to the Gospel of 
truth in civil institutions and processes than anything 
that the earth has ever before known. My heart swells 
when I look on this broad continent, and see what God 
means for us, if we are faithful and true to our privi- 
leges ; when I think what a fair and mighty form this 
nation will present when it comprises the whole of this 
vast expanse, when State shall touch State from one 
extremity to the other, when an electric chain of 
patriotism shall run over all these mountains and 
through all these valleys, and when from ocean to 
ocean there shall be but one people, with one glorious 
career of liberty. But it seems to me that we are 
coming into imminent peril. I never felt that we 
were so much in jeopardy as now. I never felt that 
we were so liable to lose hy slowness, by languid cau- 
tion, by an unreasoning fear of possible evil, and by 
indifference to the real evils that are crowding about 
us, as now. Every single month that this war goes on 
brings us into greater and greater danger. Every 



308 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

month, from this time out, is against us, and in favor 
of rebellion. Unless we can, erelong, bring this gi- 
gantic struggle to a close, we are rent asunder, and 
rent into, not two nations, but more than you can 
count upon your hand, with a clouded future, with 
warring elements innumerable, with endless strifes 
and quarrels between States, with I know not what 
grinding and clashing. Sometimes, in storms on the 
sea, ships are suddenly struck, and all the things that 
have not been securely fastened — crockery, and fur- 
niture, and various stores — are thrown from their 
places by the jerking power of the waves, and then 
they roll from side to side in strange mingling and 
confusion. Horrible indeed would be the grinding 
and clashing of the mixed contents of our ship of 
state, if this continent should be rocked by the fierce 
storm that now threatens it. I regard it as only next 
to utter destruction for this nation to be rent asunder. 
It is for my safety, now, that I declare that there must 
be no separation. It is for your safety. And there- 
fore I feel more solemnly than ever that we should 
avoid all careless speech, all unjust criticism, and, 
above all, the language of impatience and passion, and 
surround those that bear rule with our prayers. They 
should.be made to feel, not only that they are watched 
by this people, but that they are impelled by the pul- 
sations of its great heart. Never before were there 
such duties resting upon men. Never before was 
there a day when so much might be done, or when so 
much might be lost by not doing. Let us not with- 
hold confidence, nor give it in any such way as to abet 
or help wickedness. We must not only stand, but 
make other men stand. We must not stand, but ad- 



SPEAKING EVIL OF DIGNITIES. 309 

vance ; and we must not only advance ourselves, but 
make other men advance. 

But, meanwhile, to some there are no means of 
speaking. yes, there are. When in storms masters 
of vessels cannot make their crew hear, they stand 
on the quarter-deck and shout through a trumpet ; 
and the trumpet takes his words, and, enlarged, they 
roll out fourfold. God's ear is the speaking-trumpet 
through which we are to speak to men. Pray in the 
morning, at noon, and at night. Pray much for the 
government, much for your President, and much for 
the generals of our army ; and every word that you 
utter will be heard. You that have children or 
friends on the battle-field, pray, and your pleadings 
shall enter the ear of God, and he shall answer them 
in his providence. Pray for the Chief Magistrate of 
this nation ; pray for the leaders of our soldiers ; pray 
for this land ; pray for the cause of men and the cause 
of Christ that are bound up in the welfare of this land. 
If we are to be rent asunder, let the sad spectacle be 
hid from my eyes. May God permit me to die or ever 
I shall see this land destroyed. I have no further 
mission, and no further wish to live, if ruin is coming 
upon it. Give me my whole native land, with not one 
acre clipped, not one State lost ; give her to me from 
the cool North to the warm South, from the eastern 
ocean to the western ; give me all of it, and not less 
than all, unmutilated, symmetrical, with an auspicious 
future opening, and all influences of evil averted, — 
give me my native land so, and I can spend and be 
spent for her. But if she is to be rent asunder, and 
rent asunder that there may be erected another infernal 
government, whose foundation-stone, as its would-be 



310 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

founders boastingly declare, is to be the oppression of 
men, then may it be hid from my eyes. 

But it shall not be, — it shall not he I There are 
unrolling, I would fain believe, in the mysterious ways 
of God, decrees of liberty ; and we shall have our 
emancipation. We that now are fevered with war 
shall yet be healed of our trouble, and have rest. We 
are like patients on whom is some imposthume which 
fills the body with racking pains, and who, when at 
last the gathering ulcer bursts and discharges its con- 
tents, come again to quiet, and sweet sleep, and peace. 
When that terrific boil, slavery, bursts and discharges 
its foul contents, there will be peace upon this conti- 
nent. Until, it does, you will have no peace. 



xiy 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY* 

"Blessed be thou, Lord God of Israel, our Father, forever and ever. 
Thine, Lord, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the vic- 
tory, and the majesty; for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is 
thine ; thine is the kingdom, Lord, and thou art exalted as head above 
all. Both riches and honor come of thee, and thou reignest over all ; and 
in thine hand is power and might ; and in thine hand it is to make great, and 
to give strength unto all. Now, therefore, our God, we thank thee, and 
praise thy glorious name." — 1 Chron. xxix. 10 - 13. 




HIS is one of the most sublime national as- 
criptions of power and government to God 
that was evef made. It fell from the lips of 
David, speaking upon one of the most mo- 
mentous festival occasions in the Jewish history, and 
became, by acceptance, the sentiment of the whole 
people. They declared their faith in God's supremacy 
and government over the affairs, not only of individ- 
uals, but of nations. They recognized and acknowl- 
edged, not only their dependence upon God person- 
ally, but also their dependence upon him for national 
prosperity and glory. It is the uniform doctruie 



* September 28, 1862. Emancipation was proclaimed six days before; 
the habeas corpus suspended four days before; Lee had retreated after An- 
tietam, Bragg was still sti-ong in Kentucky, and men's minds were deeply 
exercised over the question of the President's War Powers. 



312 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

of the Bible, that God has a government over this 
world, which includes in it both the government of 
individuals and the government of communities of 
individuals. T^iis doctrine is not peculiar either to 
Christianity or to Judaism. All nations that have 
attained any degree of civilization have substantially 
held this great truth, that the world is governed 
by God, and that not only the affairs of individuals, 
but the affairs of societies also, were supervised and 
provided for under the Divine government. But in 
the sacred Word the government of God over nations 
is taught with more intelligence, with more discrim- 
ination, with a clearer revelation of the principles on 
which that government stands, than ever it was taught 
elsewhere. All religions recognize the fact of govern- 
ment. It is a peculiarity of the Christian faith, in its 
antecedents, and in its own self, that it reveals the 
ground and methods of the Divine moral government 
over tlie world. 

It is important to know that tlie government of God 
over nations is conducted by an administration of 
natural laws. There are many who have thought 
that God governed as an absolute monarch, looking at 
such things as pleased him, and rewarding them by a 
direct personal volition, and looking at such things as 
displeased him, and punishing them by a direct per- 
sonal volition. There are many who revolt from the 
moral government of a Being of whom it is taught 
that he interjects his own volitions upon the stated 
laws of nature. And the progress of science reveals 
the fact more and more plainly that there is not any 
interference with natural law. It equally lays the 
foundation for the better exposition of the doctrine of 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 313 

the Divine government, —- namely, that it is a govern- 
ment over this world through natural laws, and by a 
Divine administration of them. It is said that natural 
laws are stated and immutable. That is very well for 
a popular expression, but it will' not bear examination. 
For there is nothing that is less immutable than a 
law ; nothing that is adapted to have more elasticity ; 
notliing that may be more endlessly varied by the 
degree of intelligence that you bring to bear upon it, 
and the advantage which you choose to take of it. An 
ignorant and stupid man, standing in the .scope of a 
natural law, makes nothing of- it. An intelhgent and 
wise man, by using it, makes the fields fruitful, covers 
the hillsides with thrifty orchards, and fills the valleys 
with beautiful gardens. And the difference between 
a stupid and ignorant man and a wise and intelhgent 
man is simply the difference of the control that they 
bring to bear upon natural laws, and the use to which 
they put them. And the difference between civiliza- 
tion and barbarism is -the difference between know- 
ing how to use natural laws and not knowing how to 
use them. And as men grow toward manhood, they 
come more and more to know what natural laws are, 
and how to use them, and how, by using them, to ob- 
tain benefit. How much more, then, shall He that 
made man know how to use natural law ! It is sup- 
posed that God made laws as a machine which he docs 
not dare to put his finger into, lest he shall stop the 
machine, or bruise his finger ; and that he therefore 
stands behind the world, saying, " I have built this 
world, and put laws into it, and wound it up, and 
I cannot touch it." It is not so. God manages nat- 
ural laws just as man manages natural laws, only with 
u 



314 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

supreme intelligence and with unerring accuracy. A 
government of natural law is the best government on 
which volition can be brought to bear. For the Divine 
scheme is so large and so broad that there is not a 
thought nor a wish to be executed that God cannot 
execute better through changes of law than by di- 
rect, overt omnipotence. And there is no occasion to, 
interject volitions, and set aside natural law. 

This does not diminish, it augments immeasurably, 
the efficiency and certainty of the Divine government 
over men.. If the Divine government depended upon 
a single being's thought and continuity of attention, 
it might be imagined at least tliat there would be 
remissness or weariness and slumbering, — though He 
that keeps Israel never slumbers nor sleeps. If God's 
government is one of appointed la^s that have no 
remission and never cease their agency, if there are 
treasured in them great penalties and great rewards, 
if the government of natural law is self-executing, and 
if God gives it power to roll on and distribute mercies 
and curses, according as they are, one or the other, fit 
and proper, then the system of administration is one 
from which there is no escape. 

Now God's government over nations is a govern- 
ment through natural laws. It is universal. It is 
unvarying. It is immutable. It is not to be escaped. 

The administration of God over nations is con- 
ducted substantially upon the same great principles 
as that over individuals. A nation is but an afforei'a- 
tion of individuals. Tliere is more in national life 
than there is in any individual life ; but men individ- 
ually carry with them into civil federation every law 
and necessity that they have as individuals. Tliey 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 315 

leave nothing behind. They take on additional obli- 
gations, and -come under some additional laws; but 
they leave off nothing. And the administration of 
government that prevails over individuals prevails 
over them as much when they are aggregated into 
societies as when they stand alone. It is true that 
the conditions and the methods of evolution in nations 
differ from those in individual life. The life of an in- 
dividual is quickly sped. Whatever takes place with 
regard to a man must take place in a period of some 
eighty years. And if an individual is indolent, his 
indolence very soon makes its penalty appear. Drunk- 
enness in a man does not wait through many genera- 
tions. The penalty must appear during his life, or it 
cannot be a penalty. The penalty of dishonesty and 
dishonor comes quickly to a man. For the circle in 
which an individual moves is small, and he comes to 
the result of his conduct soon. But a nation is made 
up of millions of individuals, that splice each other 
and overlap generations, so that the punishment of a 
nation does not come, as does that of an individual, 
during the lifetime of any one, but during the lifetime 
of the whole nation. Tlie period is prolonged. For 
drunkenness cannot be produced in a nation, as in 
an individual, to-day or to-morrow. It takes a longer 
time to make a nation drunk than it does to make a 
man drunk. A long process must be gone through 
before a nation can be debauched. The space of 
some generations is required for that. It is not until 
an evil habit is established that the penalty begins to 
inure. And so in respect to national dishonesty, a 
nation is not made dishonest, as a man is, in a day. 
A hundred men niay become dishonest, and they may 



316 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

be steadily infecting a hundred others with dishonesty ; 
and these may spread their desolating principles to a 
whole generation ; but it takes a great while before so 
large a hfe a,s that of a nation, with its myriad indi- 
viduals, acting and counteracting, becomes so cor- 
rupted as to begin to reap the fruits of the great law 
of reward and of punishment. 

As a nation is complex, as it is made up of succes- 
sive men, as it requires long periods for the evolution 
of anything, good or bad, the reward or the penalty 
will not be immediate. The good or the evil comes to 
a nation according to its periods of life, just as it does 
to an individual. When the time comes, the remu- 
neration comes to the nation, just as certainly as it 
does to the individual, although it takes it longer to 
move, because there is so much more of national life 
than of individual life, and because the adjusting 
processes require so much more space and time in the 
life of a nation than in the hfe of an individual. 

A nation, like an. individual, is held to responsibihty 
for its obedience to physical laws. The laws that re- 
late to an individual man's body, and that vindicate 
themselves in the case of an individual, also relate to 
the physical condition of a race or a nation. A nation 
is held to responsibihty for the violation or observance 
of social laws, or laws of intelhgence, of industry, of 
frugaUty, of morals, of piety. It takes longer to make 
a nation accountable than an individual. But in its 
longer period a nation is held accountable for just 
exactly the same things that an individual is. For a 
million men have no right, because they are a million, 
to do what each individual one of them has no right 
to do, against a nattiral law. 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 317 

The observance or violation of moral principles in 
civil affairs is, if possible, even more signally rewarded 
or punished in national life than in individual life. 
Honor, truth, justice, fairness, fidelity to obligation, 
moderation of desire, magnanimity, — these are more 
in a nation than in an individual. They are, there- 
fore, more obviously rewarded in a nation than in an 
individual, and their opposites more obviously pun- 
ished. If this be so, nowhere so much in the world as 
in our land ought Christian citizens to be taught to 
consider the facts and principles that bear on national 
life, as well as those bearing on their own individual 
life. 

You are part of a family, and you know that the 
welfare of that family concerns your individual wel- 
fare. You are part of the city or town wliere you 
live, and I need not say to you that you have your 
dividend of the public welfare, good or bad. You are 
members of the great civil society, you are members 
of the body politic of this nation ; and while the wel- 
fare of the nation is made up in part of what you 
contribute to it, your welfare is in part made up of the 
nation itself. And no Christian minister that under- 
stands his duty in America can fail to indoctrinate 
his people in respect to their Christian duties as citi- 
zens. Though as Christians you examine your own 
hearts and your own consciences, though as Christian 
communicants you strive to cast out evil thoughts and 
desires from your mind, that does not fulfil your duty. 
You are bound, as a part of your fealty to Christ, to 
think also of national character, of national morals, 
and of national welfare. And as we have come to a 
time in which, in the most signal manner, God is 



318 FEEEDOM AND WAK. 

making to appear his great retributive government of 
nations, I propose to mark out some of those features 
of Divine government that are now displaying them- 
selves toward this nation, and in our affairs. 

If it is possible for a nation to sin, it must be when 
it has been led systematically to violate all the natural 
rights of a whole race or people ; and American 
slavery, by the very definition of our jurists, is the 
deprivation of men of every natural right. For the 
American doctrine of slavery is no analogTie or deriva- 
tive of the Hebrew or any mild form of slavery. It is 
the extremest and worst form of the Roman doctrine 
of slavery ; the harshest that the world has ever seen. 
It is a dehumanizing of men. It is the deliberate taking 
of men, and putting them in the place of cattle or 
chattels, and violating every one of their natural 
rights. Now, if this was done by an individual, we 
might suppose that that individual, in due time, would 
be punished. If it was done by a small community, 
we might suppose that that community would be pun- 
ished. And if there is a moral government, if God is 
just, and if he rewards or punishes nations in this 
world, it is not possible for a nation systematically to 
violate every natural right of four millions of people, 
and go unpunished. If that can be done, — if a nation 
can deny every single principle of the Decalogue, and 
every moral canon, as applied to a whole people, from 
generation to generation, and God take no account of 
it, — then I do not blame men for saying that there is no 
God. I do not stand here to say that if the Bible does 
not condemn slavery, I will throw the Bible away. I 
make no such extravagant declaration as that. There 
are reasons why you cannot throw the Bible away. It 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 319 

clings to you ; it is a part of your life ; it is woven 
into your memory of father and mother, and of your 
childhood ; and you cannot throw it away. But this 
I do say : that if you teach that a nation of thirty mil- 
lions of men may, by their organic laws, systematically 
violate the natural rights of four millions of men for 
twenty-five years, for fifty years, for seventy-five years, 
for a hundred years, and no sort of retribution follow, 
then do not blame men for saying that in that case 
there is no moral government over the affairs of this 
world. 

Suppose a man could drink a quart of whiskey 
before breakfast, another quart before dinner, and 
another before supper, but never reel, and do it for 
forty years, for sixty years, and never be drunk, what 
headway should I make with young men in impressing 
upon their minds the danger of drinking whiskey ? 
It would not be dangerous if it did not make men 
drunk. And if men can perpetrate every violation of 
natural law upon a whole race, from generation to 
generation, and no penalty follow, then there is no 
testimony of God against such wickedness, and it is 
not wicked. 

On the other hand, if they do it, and every step of 
doing is marked either by the intimation of penalty 
or the actual disclosure of it, and if that penalty is 
graded so that you can trace it from step to step, and 
so that he that is bUnd can feel it, if he cannot see it, 
then there is no casuistry about slavery, or about 
Scripture or textual authority against slavery. Then 
no man can get rid of the doctrine of God's judgment 
against slavery, and that there is a moral government 
which makes it penal to violate the rights of men. 



320 ■ FEEEDOM AND WAR. 

Let us look at it a little in this light, and see if 
there is any testimony, under God's great moral gov- 
ernment, on the subject of the sinfulness of slavery. 

1. There is no right more universal, and more 
sacred, because lying so near to the root, of existence, • 
than the right of men to their own labor. It is primal. 
But the very first step of slavery is to deny that 
right. There are four millions of men, women, and 
children, to-day, to whom is denied the right to their 
own labor, — the right to direct it or to have the fririts 
of it. Now you may reason as cunningly as you 
please, and tell me that it is better that it should be 
so, and that the slaves are better off where they are, 
and I will point to every State where slavery has de- 
nied to the slave the right to his own labor, and will 
show that in that very spot God has blighted and 
cursed the soil. Every Slave State that has had ex- 
acted and enforced labor has itself felt the blight and 
curse of slavery in its agriculture. What is the land 
in Virginia worth to-day ? It is worn out and aban- 
doned. If it were not for slave-breeding, old slave- 
tilled Virginia would not now be a Slave State. It is 
not on account of her tobacco, it is not on account of 
her cereals, it is because Virginians sell their own 
blood in the market, that she is a Slave State. It 
is only by doing that, that she can make profit on 
slaves now. Her agriculture is killed. Her soil is 
wasted. You may track slavery through North Car-, 
olina, through Soiith Carolina, through Georgia, 
through Alabama, through Mississippi, through Louis- 
iana ; and I do not tell any secret, or state that which 
any man doubts, when I say that the agriculture of 
slavery is an exhausting agriculture, and that it wears 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 321 

out every part of the country tliat it touches. The 
work of the slave carries the punishment of the master. 
The master takes away his rigiit to his labor, and the 
slave turns round and says, " I curse the soil." The 
•soil is cursed,. and it is a witness of God. 

2. Slavery violates the social and family rights of 
men. For the law of slavery is that every^ man in 
slavery is his master's, and not his own. Of course, 
therefore, every woman follows the same law. And 
there is no such thing as the right of marriage. There 
is a form of. marriage which is observed with more or 
less decency under different circumstances ; but there 
is neither the doctrine nor the impression, throughout 
slavery, that, when a man is once married, his wife is 
sacred to him forever. Sale is divorce ; and the gen- 
eral law is that, when a man is sold ten miles from the 
plantation where his wife is owned, he is free to take 
another. The Church never thinks of disciplining liim 
if he does, nor the woman if she takes a second or a 
third husband. 

Now if anything is fundamental in this world, it is 
marriage ; but if anything is violated systematically 
and inevitably, it is the right of marriage in men that 
do not own either their wives or their children in any 
way whatever. Is there any testimony on this subject ? 
Has God visited such a monstrous violation of natural 
and moral law with any punishment ? Yes, in destroy- 
ing the sacredness of the family relation. The virtue 
of the family estate is sapped throughout the South. I 
know what I speak. It is not a matter into which you 
can go in detail ; but the great sanctities and purities 
of wedded life are universally violated in the South. 
Talk about amalgamation as one of the hateful aboli- 

14* u 



322 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

tionist doctrines ! Amalgamation is never unpopular 
until it has been made lawful ; and then men hate it 
like perdition. But just so long as it is concubinage, 
adultery, and fornication, it is the most popular doc- 
trine in the whole South. And I know that the very 
foundation of the virtue of the young men throughout 
the South is perpetually sapped and undermined. I 
believe that nowhere are women more virtuous than 
there ; and nowhere do they suffer more than there. 
And in God's great revealing day, when the anguish 
of wives' hearts and mothers' hearts, when all that 
they have been made to suffer by the contaminations 
which they have seen brought by slavery into their 
families, shall be revealed, O how dreadful will then 
appear God's witness and punishment of that vile 
system ! Those who take away from the slave the 
fundamental right of matrimony, and of the family, 
are punished by the undermining of the virtue and 
purity of their own households. 

3. Slavery makes ignorance indispensable to the 
slave ; because where there is knowledge, every fac- 
ulty is a wheel set in motion. The more complex the 
machinery of a man's mind is, the more needful it is 
to have a skilful engineer to manage and keep it in 
repair, and the more fuel it requires to run it ; while 
the less complex it is, the nearer the man is to an ani- 
mal, the easier it is to manage it and keep it in repair, 
and supply its wants. As long as man lives only in 
bone and muscle, he asks nothing but pork and corn- 
meal. As long as he is an ox, he chews ox-fodder. 
When he becomes a man, he eats man's food. And 
the difference between a slave and a man is the differ- 
ence between fodder and food. The moment you give 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 323 

a man a heart, lie must have something for his heart ; 
the moment you give him imagination, lie must have 
some opportunity, some scope, some leisure, for his 
imagination ; the moment you give him reason, he 
must have food for his reason ; and as you augment a 
man in civilization, and 'make more and more of him, 
there must be a larger space, more room, for him. 
And so, when you give slaves intelligence, you make 
them so voluminous that a man cannot afford to pro- 
vide for a hundred of them ; and it is not safe to let 
them provide for themselves. The only way, there- 
fore, to make slavery profitable, is to keep the slave 
ignorant. 

Now, is there no punishment for this wrong ? If a 
man shuts the door of knowledge against his fellow- 
man, is there no testimony of God against it ? Is it 
no sin to rob manhood of knowledge ? Is it no crime 
to take from man the liberty of being what God made 
him to be ? I hold that there is no other crime in the 
calendar to be compared with that. The man that 
robs a bank in New York commits a slight offence 
compared with that which he 'commits who robs a hu- 
man being of the right to open his own mind before 
God and man. And what is the punishment of that ? 
The white man says to the slave, "You shall not 
know anything " ; and the slave says to the white man, 
" Massa, you shall not know anything," — and he does 
not ! For the great mass of the white men of the 
South are profoundly ignorant, and must remain igno- 
rant, for the reason that you cannot have schools 
where there is a legalized system of ignorance. Where 
there is a system of enforced ignorance that deprives 
four millions of men of knowledge, you cannot also 



324 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

have 'a system of forced intelligence that shall diffuse 
knowledge among the remainder of the population, as 
the free schools of the North do among our popula- 
tion. The necessity of keeping the slave ignorant is 
the necessity of keeping the major part of the white 
people at the South ignorant. They are ignorant, and 
ignorant they will remain while slavery remains ; and 
God bears witness that he punishes this exclusion of 
knowledge from the slave. 

4. Slavery, taking away from man his rights, and 
degrading him to be a thing of bargain and sale, 
avenges itself by making human life unsacred wher- 
ever slavery prevails. It begins by lowering the idea 
of manhood, and by making slave-life of no account, 
except for purposes of traffic. The punishment is 
that, in lowering the idea of manhood, and making life 
of no account in respect to four millions of men, it 
does the same things in respect to all mankind. And 
where is life so cheap, and where can a man be killed 
so easily and with so little disturbance of society, as in 
the Southern States ? And where slavery is the most 
rancorous, not only are duels, riots, assassinations, and 
bloody broils most frequent, but the whole of social 
life is low and barbarous. And it is reasonable that 
life should be cheaper there than in civilized commu- 
nities, because it is a great deal more to kill a virtu- 
ous, noble-minded man than a barbarian ! There are 
some men such that if you kill one, you kill a thou- 
sand men ; and there are some men of whom you 
might kill a thousand, and then not kill more than 
one. Influences proceed togetlier by elective affini- 
ties ; and thus a system that for the sake of slavery 
lowers the doctrine of manhood, lowers it about all 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND TENALTY. 325 

men. Thus it punishes itself, and carries the pelialty 
in its own nature. 

5. Yet more terrible is another aspect. Slavery, 
while admitted to be an evil, and regretted, might 
consist with correct civil ideas. It did in the begin- 
ning. Till within mj remembrance. Christian men 
and statesmen in the South admitted that slavery was 
an evil, deprecated its existence, and hoped for its de- 
cline and its extinction ; and it was quite compatible 
with the existence of slavery that these men held right 
doctrines about men and government. But a change 
came, and the doctrine that now exists throughout 
the South on the subject of slavery is, that slavery is 
right, and that it is the right of the strong and the 
intelligent to take away from the weak and the igno- 
rant every civil right, and every personal right, and 
to subject and subdue them to their own will. That 
is now claimed by the South as a right. Well, what' 
has been the penalty ? The assumption of the right 
to denude four millions of men of their rights, has 
avenged itself by rolling back and corrupting every 
political tlieory and every political idea throughout 
the South. Every thinking man there has been cor- 
rupted to the core by this doctrine of slavery. And I 
aver without fear of contradiction, that the South have 
set themselves free from democracy and republicanism. 
They are neither republican nor democratic. They 
are aristocratic, and are verging close upon monarchy. 
And slavery has punished them. As an instrument in 
the hand of God, it has been turned upon them for 
their punishment. They have been punished as with 
a whip of scorpions. They have held a doctrine that 
justified them in taking every civil and every natural 



826 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

right away from their fellow-men, and God has pun- 
ished them by turning them back to the. barbaric 
periods, and driving them upon the waste and now 
abandoned doctrines of Europe. And the States of 
the South, — you know w^here they are. They are 
four hundred years back of where you stand, and they 
are going back. They have already got the other side 
of the Reformation, and they are on the way to the 
Bed Sea, and God will thrust them in ! 

6. As with States, so with the Federal government. 
I might cite innumerable instances of penalty that 
have accompanied the opening and progress of this 
system of slavery. The Federal government has 
tolerated slavery, and it has experienced, and is expe- 
riencing, punishment therefor. In the inception of 
this government, when independent States were being 
persuaded to coalesce, and to form one great nation, 
the dread of weakness was so great that men consented 
to act by sight, and not by faith. 

A cooper goes to work to make a wine-cask. He pre- 
pares the staves, and begins to set them up. This one 
is sound, and he sets it up ; that one is sound, and he 
sets that up ; he runs around the circle, till he comes 
to the last three or four staves, when he takes them 
up, and finds that they are worm-eaten and bored in 
every direction. He says, *' I am afraid that I shall 
not make my barrel if I do not put them in : I know 
they are poor, that the wine will leak out, and that I 
shall have a terrible time to save it, but I must make 
up my barrel, and these are all that I have." So he 
puts them in, and drives down the hoops ; and when 
the wine is put in it runs out, and then follows a sys- 
tem of tinkering, and driving in a chip here, and a 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND TENALTY. o'll 



10 



sliver there. But in spite of all that he can do, tl 
wine leaks away. And, after infinite trials and vexa- 
tions, he finds that the wine is all gone, and that tlie 
barrel is good for nothing. What should he have 
done ? He should have tlirown out those worm-eaten 
staves, and made the barrel smaller. 

Now, because they were afraid that South Carolina 
— that rottenest of rotten staves — would not come in, 
the framers of our government admitted slavery, the 
worm-eating devastation of this country. Suppose 
they had said, '^ We will have a Union and have free- 
dom in it, and only those that consent to the exclusion 
of slavery shall be admitted," — suppose they had said 
this, and made their barrel smaller, and made it sound, 
is there any doubt as to wliat the issue would have 
been ? But they were so afraid of weakness that they 
wished to make the barrel large, and they put in 
worm-eaten staves ; and the result is that there lias 
not been one single weakness in this government that 
has not followed directly from the mischief of slavery 
in it. We were a homogeneous people. We had 
opportunities on this continent, and elements of pros- 
perity, such as no nation ever possessed. There never 
was launched such a people on such a sphere as this. 
And the great and only cause of weakness and trouble 
in the Federal government has been slavery. And 
the agitations and disturbances and sufferings through 
which we have passed have been .so many penalties 
and punishments which God has infixed upon the 
wickedness that included slavery in this government. 
We have had a head full of sound teeth. Slavery is 
the only tooth that has ached. Every other one has 
been true to its function. 



828 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

It has been said that resistance to slavery has been 
the cause of all our national troubles. That is as if a 
wise physiologist should say that the resistance of the 
principle of health in a man's body to disease was the 
cause of fevers, and that the way not to have fevers 
was to lie down and let the disease go through its 
course. Yes, there has been conscience enough to 
make resistance, thank God. If it had not been for 
that, we should have been corrupted through and 
through, and the very marrow would have been rotten 
before this time. 

For a period of fifty years, on pleas of national 
peace, for the sake of harmony and prosperity, the 
loyal and free States have declined to maintain the 
policy of liberty, and have permitted slavery to aug- 
ment from an acknowledged evil to a dominant power, 
— from a thing permitted to a despotic influence. 
We have, for a period of fifty years, had a race of 
statesmen, bribed and corrupted, who have perpetually 
said, " Let us not disturb the prosperity of this great 
nation." 0, how they have laughed at and scorned 
the men that sounded out God's denunciations and 
woes against such monstrous iniquity ! and how they 
have uttered in the ears of a credulous public the 
declaration, " This nation, this Government, this Con- 
stitution, — are they not more precious than the isms 
of the abolitionists ? " In other words, when God's 
law demanded justice, they have said, '' Commercial 
prosperity is more than God's law." When once a 
man, that never, I fear, will say so good a thing again, 
said that there was a higher law than legislators ever 
passed, the whole nation — not excepting ministers in 
pulpitSj who have, I hope, learned better things by this 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 62\) 

time — derided the idea that there could be a higher 
law. And such has been the state of things in the 
midst of which politicians in this country have been 
trained, and which has brought the original principles 
of justice and equity to contempt. The ruling spirit 
of the nation has been a commercial spirit, and that in 
its lowest forms. 

Has there been any penalty ? What has been the 
result of the last fifty years of peace-making ? Go to 
Sharpsburg ; go into Virginia, where battles have 
been fought ; go along the swamps of the Chicka- 
hominy ; go through Kentucky and Missouri, where 
war like a sirocco has desolated everything ; go where 
the land rocks and reels with earthquakes and convul- 
sions, — and read the lessons of peace that we have been 
taught. For in these days we are reaping what we 
have sowed. These things are the fruit of the seed 
that we have planted. You would have peace, and 
you see what you have got. If you had stood up be- 
fore, manfully, and listened betimes, and resisted the 
evil that threatened the very life of the nation, you 
would not have come to this pass. You were warned, 
you were exhorted, innumerable witnesses foretold 
what the result must be, and behold it has come upon 
you ! 

I beg you still further to take notice of some re- 
markable facts. 

If there is any State in this Union that has suffered 
more severely than another, it is Virginia. If there 
is any State that has sinned against light and knowl- 
edge, it is Virginia. She knew better ; and she has 
been desolated, skinned, peeled, stripped bare. Fam- 
ine now sweeps with outspread wings over her plains, 



330 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

and desolation grins in her valleys, that a few months 
ago were as lovely as paradise. 

Virginia was dragooned out of the nation. When 
the convention was elected, it was elected by the 
people in favor of the Union. They assembled in 
Richmond. There was a conspiracy of slave-traders, 
who, in connection with some desperate politicians, 
instituted a terrorism ; and that convention was dra- 
gooned to a secret vote that took the State out of the 
Union, by that corruptest, guiltiest, and most accursed 
class of men, slave-traders, who are hated of men, of 
God, and the devil. And that State, which was the 
keystone of the arch, and which permitted herself to 
fall out, has had the most terrible punishment. Is 
there no lesson in that ? Is that an accidental fact ? 

Consider, again, the strange part that has been 
played in this conflict by Southern women. A woman 
always goes with her whole heart, whether for the 
good or for the bad. Women are the best and the 
worst things that God ever made ! And they have 
been true to their nature in this conflict. Southern 
men have been tame and cool in comparison with the 
fury of Southern women. Now, admit that tl^ey were 
blinded. A man that steps off from a precipice is not 
saved because he is blindfolded. A man that walks in 
lire is not saved because he thought it was water. I 
suppose that of the male population of the South be- 
tween the ages of fifteen and fifty, a majority will 
be utterly cut off before this war ends. To a great 
extent. Southern households are to be stripped of 
those that are their heads, and the South is to be a 
realm in. which woman shall be deprived of her nat- 
ural protector, and bear unutterable woes of poverty 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND TENALTY. 831 

and sorrow and murder and rapine. She has taken 
such an unfortunate position in this war, for slavery, 
and she has sinned against such great light, that God 
is bringing down upon her head condign punishment. 
We, too, are suffering in the North, and in the same 
way that we ought to. I accept the punishment. It 
is measured with an even hand all over the country. 
Every man that should have voted right, and did not, 
is having, or is yet to have, a part in the sufferings 
caused by this struggle. Every State that, for the 
sake of its manufactories, has refused to do the right 
thing, has suffered, and shall suffer. For I call you 
more specially to take notice, that the North has suf- 
fered to the extent to which she has winked at slavery 
for the sake of commerce. Why is it that the State of 
Connecticut — my State— the State in which I was 
born and bred, which I love with an unfaltering love, 
and of which I have been so often ashamed — has 
been so servile, so radically Democratic, in the sense 
ofthat Democracy which means pandering to slavery, — 
why is it, but that she has established petty manufac- 
tories along the shore, and that her great market has 
been South ? Why has the manufacturing North been 
so largely pro-slavery ? Why has the policy of freedom 
been so often betrayed and paralyzed by the merchants 
of New York and Philadelphia, and Boston and Pitts- 
burg ? Commerce has bribed them. And what is the 
result ? You have been making money out of slavery. 
A part of my support comes out of slavery. I do not 
deny this. I know that I eat sugar and wear cotton 
that have been produced by the unrequited labor of 
slaves. I know that this evil of slavery has gone 
through every fibre of the whole North. And while I 



332 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

blame the North, I take part of the blame on my own 
liead. I put part of it o;i your head. I distribute it 
to every State. I am not making complaint against 
the South distinctively, but against the nation. And 
by the time you have paid two thousand million dol- 
lars of taxes, and have but just begun, I think that the 
Lord will have got back pretty much all that the North 
has made out of slavery ! God is a great tax-gatherer ; 
he is out now on that errand ; and he will have a 
prosperous time ! 

I call you still further to take notice, that every 
nation and people on the globe that has had any 
political or pecuniary connection with this monstrous 
evil is being made to suffer. God is pouring out th<3 
vial of his wrath ; and bearing witness, tremendous 
witness, by war, against slavery, and against the cruel 
wickedness of men that perpetuate it. The South suf- 
fers, the North suffers, and, next to this nation, Eng- 
land suffers, because, next to this nation, she is guilty. 
England ? why, there is not a better-tongued people 
in the world. England ? I honor her old history ; I 
honor her struggles for liberty ; I honor her stalwart 
valor in the present day. And yet the commercial 
classes of England have thriven, and made their wealth 
and built their palaces, out of slave labor. And to- 
day there is mourning in the factories of England, 
there is famine in her streets, and the commercial 
classes are demanding that the ports of the South shall 
be opened. And now that government, which has 
already winked at wickedness on account of the neces- 
sity of obtaining cotton, is yielding, and is considering 
whether it is not necessary for her to commit another 
monstrous wickedness. God punishes England, be- 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 666 

cause England has had to do with slavery. And he 
is punishing France. France suffers less, but France 
is suffering. Find me a nation whose welfare has de- 
pended on cotton or sugar, and I will find you a nation 
that is suffering in consequence of this war. 

Are these facts accidental ? The condition of the 
South, of the North, and of foreign countries, in their 
relations to the war, — are these accidental ? Is there 
any such thing as a divine witness ? Are there any 
such things as indications of a. moral government, and 
of punishments accruing from the transgression of 
moral laws ? 

What then, I ask, in conclusion, is infidelity in our 
day ? It is refusing to hear God's voice, and to believe 
God's testimony in his providence. There are plenty 
of men who believe in Genesis, and Chronicles, and 
the Psalms, and Isaiah, and Daniel, and Ezekiel, and 
Matthew, and the other EvangeHsts, and the rest of the 
New Testament, clear down to the Apocalypse ; there 
are plenty of men who believe in the letter of Scrip- 
ture ; and there are plenty of men who believe every- 
thing that God said four thousand years ago ; but 
the Lord God Almighty is walking forth at this 
time in clouds and thunder such as never rocked 
Sinai. His voice is in all the land, and in all the 
earth, and those men that refuse to hear God in his 
own time, and in the language of the events that are 
taking place, are infidels. And the infidelity is greater 
in your case than it could be in the case of any other 
people ; because to beheve in slavery, to refuse to 
believe in liberty, and to be unwiUing to believe that 
God rewards liberty and punishes slavery, agamst 
your education, -against your historic ideas, against all 



334 FREEDOM AND WAK. 

the canons of your political structure, against the nat- 
ural sympathies of the heart, — that is a monstrous 
infidelity. No man can be such an infidel by disbe- 
lieving the Bible as you can by standing and looking 
upon the current events of this age, and refusing to 
believe that God is bearing witness against oppression 
and in favor of liberty. Take care. You are in more 
danger on that point, just now, than on any other. 
Because things are coming to a crisis. We are about 
to move in gigantic force in one way or the other ; 
and it is necessary that we should fall back on some 
great principle. Henceforth, let us refuse to take 
guidance and direction from the counsels of cunning 
men or weaving politicians. It is time for us to fall 
back from the counsels of men, and strike some great 
immutable principle of God. 

What, then, is to be our policy for the future ? 
What are we to do ? One class of men will say, 
" The remedy for all these evils is to gather together 
about twenty secessionists, and about twenty abolition- 
ists, and hang them ! " But I will tell you what hang- 
ing abolitionists will do. It will do just exactly what 
would be done if, when a terrible disease had broken 
out on a ship, the crew should kick the doctors over- 
board, and the medicine after them. The disease would 
stay on board, and only the cure would go overboard. 
You may rage as much as you please, but the men 
who labor to bring back the voices of the founders of 
this Union ; the men whose faith touches the original 
principles of God's Word ; the men that are in sym- 
pathy with Luther ; the men that breathe the breath 
that fanned the flame of the Eevolution ; the men 
that walk in the spirit of the old Puritans ; the men 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND TENALTY. 335 

that are like the first framers of this model republic, 
— they are the men, if there be any medicine yet, by 
whose hand God will send a cure. Hang them ? tliat 
was the medicine that the Jews had when they cruci- 
fied Christ. The Lord of glory was put upon an 
ignominious tree, and they thought that they would 
have peace in Jerusalem ! And where is Jerusalem ? 
AVhere are the Jews? They are a by-word and a 
hissing to the earth. And you, the children of men 
that came here for liberty ; you, that heard only the 
doctrines of liberty from your mother's lips, and 
drank it with her milk ; you, in whose make every 
thread and every fibre was spun from the golden 
fleece of liberty, — can you stand in any doubt as to 
what the remedy is for such times as these ? It is to 
repent of past days, to break away from the past, and 
to call God to witness that in time to come we will 
consecrate, individually and nationally, every energy 
to repair the mischief of slavery, to do it away ut- 
terly, and to establish the reign of universal liberty. 
That is the path of safety. And blessed be God, he 
has sent a porter. He has opened the door by the 
hand of the President. He has Hfted the silver 
trumpet of liberty, and the blast is blown that rolls 
through the forest, and goes along the mountain-side, 
and spreads wide over the prairies. It is known on 
the hither ocean, and on the thither ; and the waves 
of the Pacific, and the waves of the Atlantic, lift 
themselves up, and sound together notes of gladness 
because that policy is enunciated which cannot be 
taken back. As long as it was a question whether 
the President meant to declare emancipation, as Com- 
mander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United 



336 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

States, as a military necessity, — as long as there was 
any doubt on this subject, the North was in danger 
of being divided into two parties, one attempting to 
make him proclaim liberty, and the other attempting 
to make him stand up for slavery. He has taken his 
choice between them. And there can be but two 
parties in the North, one of whom shall go for liberty, 
the government, and the President, and the other for 
the South, for treachery, and for slavery. The foun- 
dation of all opposition is knocked out. 

I know it is said that the President is not the gov- 
ernment ; that the Constitution is the government. 
What ! a sheepish parchment a government ! I 
should think it was a very fit one for some such men 
as I often see and hear ! What is a government in 
our country ? It is a body of living men, ordained 
by the people, who administer public affairs according 
to the laws that are written in the Constitution and 
the statute-books. The government consists of liv- 
ing men that are administering, in a certain method, 
the affairs of the nation. It is not a dry writing or a 
book. President Lincoln and his Cabmet, the heads 
of the executive departments, are the government. 
And men must take their choice whether they will 
go against their government or go with it. Mouth- 
ing traitors will pretend to go with the government 
while they are undermining it, and honest men 
will go with it, — and you know that the honest 
men in the North are yet a ' large majority. I thank 
God that the lines are drawn. There is nothing so 
demoralizing as equivocal neutraUty, and nothing so 
bad. And since the President has taken ground, 
since the administration and government are now 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 337 

fixed on the side of liberty, the old original wisdom 
of our Constitution, and the doctrine of our fathers, 
we are going to have the Union as it never was, but 
as it was meant to be. The Union as it was meant 
to be, and not the Union as it was, is to be our doc- 
trine ; because the Union as it was, was a monstrous 
outrage on your rights, and on mine. The Union as 
it was guaranteed me the right of speech, to be paid 
for by my life in Virginia and Carolina and Georgia 
and Alabama and Mississippi and Louisiana and 
Arkansas and Missouri. I could not have gone to 
either of those States and spoken the words that I 
have spoken to-night without praising God to-morrow 
morning in another world. Am I to celebrate the 
Union as it was, which was a practical violation of 
the great canons of the Constitution, of the great 
principles of the Bills of Rights, and of the great doc- 
trines of the Declaration of Independence ? Slavery 
had corrupted it, and made it to be practically an 
abominable thing in many of its usages. But the 
Union as it was to be, the Union as it was in the 
intent of the framers of it, — let that come back ; and, 
so far as it is twisted out of shape, let the twists be 
taken out, so that it shall stand just exactly plumb 
to the line of the Constitution. Then we shall have 
the Union that is to be, and the Union that we want. 

And now, my Christian friends, if the whole Church 
of the Christian North and the loyal North, if the 
ministers and the members of the churches, and all 
that are religiously inclined throughout the North, 
will be pleased to make this a matter of rehgious 
conviction, and if they will assume that God has 
come to judgment with this nation, and will for 

15 V 



838 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

their future policy ask, not, '' Mr. Seward, wliat 
wilt thou have me to do?" nor, "Mr. Seymour, 
what wilt thou have me to do ? " nor even, " Mr. 
Lincoln, what wilt thou have me to do ? " but, 
" Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ? " — if the 
Cliristian public of the North will settle their duty in 
the light of eternity, and according to the principles 
of God's Word, and if they will take the slave, and 
bear him to Calvary, and lay him down under the 
cross of Him that gave his life for the poor and 
wretched, and if then, as the sacred drops fall from 
the wounded side upon his beaten and bruised body, 
kneeling down, they will say, " Jesus, what wilt thou 
have me to do for this injured and oppressed one ? " 
and will settle it there, and under that influence, I 
have no fear. 

We shall see struggles, and go through deep and 
bitter trials yet ; but the future is bright. For where 
Christ sits is daylight and morning. And if the 
whole Christian public of the North set their faces 
toward God, and move toward him, they will move 
away from night, and toward the day, — a day that, 
when it shall once have arisen on this continent, shall 
know no setting, — a day of Christian liberty, — the 
harbinger of universal freedom to a world regen- 
erated. God grant it. 

And as for me, I am determined, by that same help 
that has been vouchsafed to me from the beginning, to 
preach a Gospel of liberty among you, and to bear 
witness for liberty, as founded in religion, to all this 
nation. I will not be intimidated. I shall not be per- 
suaded. Come weal or come woe, — whether we are 
defeated and cast back again, or whether we go for- 



NATIONAL INJUSTICE AND PENALTY. 339 

ward immediately to the prosperity of an ascertained 
and settled liberty, — as long as I have life and health, 
and strength and breath, I will use them first and last, 
and chiefly and only, for the enunciation of that Gos- 
pel which brings release to the captive, and liberty 
to man. There is no power even in hell, though 
you bring its legions and its monstrosities upon tlic 
earth, that for one single moment will hinder or turn 
back this testimony that God made man to be free. 
I will preach it for the sewing-woman ; I will preach 
it for the poor day-laborer ; I will preach it for the 
white man and for the black man ; I will preach it 
for all in this land ; I will preach it for the oppressed 
of other lands, — for the Irishman, for the Dane, for 
the Englishman, for the Frenchman, for the struggling 
Italian, and for the Hungarian ; I will preach it for 
every man. For God hath made all nations of one 
blood, and to dwell together. I own the brotherhood. 
I accept every man as my brother, inheriting my 
right. And as long as I claim for myself Hberty, I 
will assert it for other men, I will live for it, and I 
will die for it. 

I see that this is not my own individual inspiration. 
I am moved to this because it is in the heart, because 
it is the public sentiment of States and communities. 
I am but the mouthpiece of millions of men ; and I 
say to those that meditate treachery and tyranny. Be- 
ware ! God has come to judgment, but he has come 
to a judgment by which he will purify his people, and 
make them a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 
We shall see a glorious Union. We shall see a re- 
stored Constitution. We shall see a liberty in whose 
bright day Georgia and Massachusetts shall shake 



340 



FREEDOM AND WAR. 



hands that never shall be separated again. There is 
love yet to be raked open. Now there is fierceness of 
hatred ; but there shall come concord, fellowship, and 
union, that no foreign influence can break, and no 
home trouble shall ever mar again. We shall live to 
see a better day. 



XV. 



THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT* 



" That the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be ensnared." — Job 
xxxiv. 30. 

HE whole context from the seventeenth verse 
is worthy of reading. 




_ « Shall even he that hateth right govern ? and 
wiU thou condemn him that is most just ? Is it fit to say to a 
king, Thou art wicked ? and to princes, Ye are ungodly ? 
How much less to him that accepteth not the persons of 
princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor ? for they 
all are the work of his hands." 

God is the greatest democrat in the nniverse. He 
does not regard ranks, nor conditions, nor degrees ; 
and he says that the highest rich man is jnst like the 
lowest poor man, and that a king is no better than the 
hnmblest of his subjects. They are all alike before 
the throne of God. As you go toward heaven, you go 
toward the true divine democracy. 

"In a moment shall they die, and the people sliall be 
troubled at midnight, and pass away ; and the mighty shall 
be taken away without hand. For his eyes are upon the 

* November 22, 1862. 



342 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

ways of man, and he seeth all liis goings. There is no dark- 
ness nor shadow of death, where the workers of iniquity may 
hide themselves " — from God. " For he will not lay upon 
man more than right, that he should enter into judgment 
with God. He shall break in pieces mighty men without 
number, and set others in their stead. Therefore he knoweth 
their works, and he overturneth them in the night, so that 
they are destroyed. He striketh them as wicked men in the 
open sight of others ; because they turned back from him, and 
would not consider any of his ways : so that they cause the 
cry of the poor to come unto him, and he heareth the cry of 
the afflicted. When he giveth quietness, who then can make 
trouble ? and when he hideth his face, who then can behold 
him ? whether it be done against a nation, or against a 
man only : that the hypocrite reign not, lest the people be 
ensnared." 

It is affirmed that Job was written at some period 
between Abraham and Moses. It is the oldest portion, 
or at least one of the oldest portions, of the sacred 
writings. And yet, old as it is, the world-long contro- 
versy whether God governed the world by a moral law, 
with rewards and penalties, had begun when it was 
written. The whole passage read is a fine assertion 
of the fact of Divine government, and with shades and 
applications that would seem to make it the transcript 
of God's procedure in our own time. 

The fault of all expectations and arguments as to 
the existence of a moral government over human 
affairs is apt to be that men seek for the evidences of 
a moral government where they are not most eminent. 
For the Divine government is distributed through 
many different departments of life. A part of it ap- 
pears in the individual. A part of it follows him into 
the family. A part of it belongs to his commercial, 



THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 343 

and a part of it to his civil life. And we are to gather 
the results of any moral course, not alone in an indi- 
vidual fate, but in the collective fate of all the indi- 
viduals represented in the household, in their business, 
and in their civil estate. And the results of God's 
moral administration appear partly in the individual, 
partly in the household, partly in the affairs of com- 
merce, and partly in national histories. But man's 
life, taken comprehensively, bears witness to nothing, 
if not to the moral government of God, which rewards 
right conduct, truth, honor, virtue, manhood, and 
duty, and punishes the reverse. And history has been 
written in vain, if history has not taught this. But it 
has not been written in vain, and it does teach this. 
A man in civil government is just as much a subject 
of the divine moral government as a man in his 
individual relations. 

Civil governments are said to be of God. All gov- 
ernment is ordained of God ; and civil governments 
are so, not as by revelation and ordination, but be- 
cause the nature of man necessitates government. 
God did not create man, and then command a govern- 
ment over him, but he created man with a necessity 
and instinct of government, and then left that instinct 
and necessity to develop themselves. God made men 
to need clothes, but he never cut out a pattern for 
them to make their clothes by. He left them to 
choose their own raiment. God made appetite, but 
he never made a bill of fare. He left men to pick out 
their own food. God made man's necessity for gov- 
ernment, and then let him alone, and that necessity 
of government wrought out civil governments. 

There has been a law, also, in these ; for govern- 



344 FEEEDOM AND WAR. 

meiits are not accidental. Governments are always 
the legitimate outworkings of the condition of those 
governed ; and there cannot, for any prolonged period, 
be a government that is not, in the nature of things, 
adapted to those under it. If there is an absolute 
monarchy, it is an indication that there is a state of 
the people that requires an absolute monarchy. If 
there is an intermediate, or aristocratic government, it 
is an indication that the state of the people is such as 
to necessitate that government. If there is a con- 
tinuous and strong republican government, or self- 
government in any form, it is because there was a 
condition of the people that wrought it out. For gov- 
ernments are not arbitrary. They are the effect of 
which the moral state of the people is the cause. 
Therefore we are not to rail against any form of gov- 
ernment, as if it were itself a monstrous wrong. Gov- 
ernments are shadows that nations and peoples them- 
selves cast ; and they usually measure in some degree 
the proportions of the peoples or nations that cast 
them. 

The lowest conditions of men always induce strong 
governments ; tliey always induce governments of 
force rather than of motive ; and for the reason that 
men in an undeveloped and ignorant state are unsus- 
ceptible of motive. They do not think much. Their 
moral sense is inchoate, and you cannot address many 
motives to it. That part of their life is superstitious 
rather than religious, and it leads to the introduction 
of superstitious motives into government. And in pro • 
portion as men are in condition hke animals, you must 
harness and whip them as you do animals. You can- 
not govern them in any other way. We act upon 



THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 345 

tliis principle in our households ; for the little child, 
before it has learned to use its reason and its moral 
sense, is governed through the skin. And just in 
proportion as it is redeemed from animalism, and car- 
ried up toward intelligence and moral sense, a moral 
and intellectual government is introduced in the place 
of a physical government. You cannot govern a 
child of four years as you can a man of forty, simply 
because those motives which influence the developed 
nature of the man have no effect on the undeveloped 
nature of the child. And so it is in governments. 
While men are low and brutal and savage, while they 
have possession of but a part of themselves, it is not 
possible to govern them in any way except with refer- 
ence to their condition. 

The middle state will result in government by 
orders and classes. It will emancipate such as are 
strong and intelligent, and leave the ignorant yet 
under strong government. When all men are igno- 
rant, you will have absolute monarchies ; when a part 
are intelligent and the rest are ignorant, you will 
have aristocracies ; and when the whole are intelli- 
gent, you will have democracies, or republican govern- 
ments. One of these three is inevitable. The people 
determine what the government shall be. If they are 
brutal, there will be tyrannies ; if they are partly 
civilized and partly uncivilized, there will be aristoc- 
racies ; if they are wholly civilized, there will be de- 
mocracies. Governments necessitate themselves, and 
adapt themselves to the people. 

Let us look a little at this order of governments, as 
founded upon the character of the people. 

Strong governments belong to the undeveloped and 

15* 



346 FREEDOM AND WAR, 

weak. It is so of necessity, and it is so by right. If 
it is wrong to have monarchies when they are re- 
quired, it is still more wrong to have people that can 
be governed by nothing but monarchies. So long as 
people are crude and undeveloped, you can govern 
them in no other way than by strong and compulsory 
means. There were attempts made early at self-gov- 
ernments, but they all failed ignominiously, for tlie 
reason that the people were not prepared to govern 
themselves. The Jewish nation has been called a 
commonwealth. That there were in its legislation 
elements of a commonwealth, there can be no doubt ; 
but in point of fact the government of the Jewish 
people never did amount to anything more than a 
strong government. It was either a government of 
chiefs over tribes, or a government of priests, under 
the name of theocracy. And it was a strong govern- 
ment, whatever the form might be. 

Just as far as ignorance and passion and rudeness 
exist in a community, they impede self-government, 
or even make it impossible. And where the people 
are not prepared or qualified to govern themselves, 
absolute governments are just as certain now as ever 
before. Government is not a thing to be chosen, 
except so far as necessity is itself choice. Adapta- 
tion is a kind of generic choice. It is supposed that 
we have outgrown monarchical governments. We 
have been taught, since the days of the spelling-book 
and the old '' Columbian Orator," that this nation 
could not be governed by a monarchy. It depends 
upon how ignorant and how wicked you are. Largo 
portions of this nation cannot be governed by any- 
thing but a monarchy now, and there is danger that 



THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 347 

erelong such will be the case with the whole nation 
unless there is a change. For as ignorance disap- 
pears, so disappear monarchies ; and as ignorance 
comes back, so inevitably come back monarchies. 
August laughs at the idea of March, and says, " We 
have no frost ; we have warm nights and glowing 
days, and there shall be no more frosts." And Sep- 
tember says it, only with a fainter voice. And Octo- 
ber begins to feel pinching frosts. And as the days 
grow shorter, and the nights grow longer, and Novem- 
ber and December come in, the reign of whiter again 
ensues. And there is a January to every August, as 
there is an April to every January. And there are 
just such revolutions in the history of the world. 
You can have Pharaohs again, if you want them, — 
though I pray God that there may be a Red Sea for 
every one of them ! You can have dynasties again 
by just letting the people become adapted to them by 
ignorance, by unvirtue, by a want of self-restraint, by 
pampered self-indulgence, or by pride growing out of 
monstrous prosperity. Every step toward declension 
from moral character is a written invitation for tyr- 
anny to come back, — and it never lingers long nor 
hesitates when invited. 

Whenever, from any cause, large portions of any 
community become barbarous, they necessitate mon- 
archies, and the prevailing governments must either 
grow strong, or fail entirely ; for there can be no self- 
government except where there is virtue, intelligence, 
and moral worth. 

Strong governments, then, belong to the first con- 
ditions of the world, to the lowest states of human 
life ; and they are not good as compared with bet- 



848 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

ter governments, but good as compared with nothing 
at all. 

The process of civilization, with all its manifold 
powers, acts first, of course, upon the strongest 
natures. In strong governments there will be, if 
they be at all good, a tendency to improve. This 
tendency usually shows itself first, not in masses, but 
in single instances ; and when educating influences 
begin to bear upon a community, the most susceptible 
are first affected ; the men with the strongest minds, 
with the most intellection, with the richest natures, 
with the best parts, are earliest developed. The word 
aristocrat comes from a Greek word that signifies tlie 
best. And in the progress of the development of 
national life the first men that are educated, and that 
begin to have the power that comes from education, 
are men that by original endowment are the best 
men, the most intellectual men, the men of the most 
brain and substance. 

The second result is that such men become incapa- 
ble of enduring an arbitrary government. As long 
as men are ignorant, and deficient in will, they are 
incompetent to resist a strong government, and, like 
the masses around them, they submit to it ; but 
as they begin to think, and have will-power, they 
begin to resist the government, and it slides off, and 
begins to distribute its power, and an aristocracy 
comes in as the first transition from an absolute gov- 
ernment, so that there will be a monarch, witli a 
class, as in England, or a class without a monarch, as 
in some of the ancient nations. Under such circum- 
stances, the government is called the government of 
the best men over the masses, or of the few over the 



THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 349 

many. And tins is a natural and inevitable transi- 
tion state from strong government to self-government. 
It holds a middle place between a government over 
the people and a government from the people. It 
includes, in some degree, the elements of both. And 
the same reason that compels the crown to divide its 
power with the higher classes will go on steadily, 
compelling these higher classes to admit fresh sections 
into their upper circle. There is a tendency in gov- 
ernments to work toward the republican form. That 
is to say, where governments are wisely and efficiently 
administered, men more and more learn the art and 
acquire the capacity of governing, and become them- 
selves depositaries of governmental power. 

In all Europe there is a steady progress toward the 
last great form of civil government, — namely, repub- 
lican government, or government of the people by the 
people. I know it is said that the English govern- 
ment is the best government on the earth. Very 
likely it may be the best in the intermediate period ; 
but it is not standing still in that period. If there is 
one thing more certain than another, it is that, as the 
popular element increases, that government recedes 
from aristocracy and monarchy toward republicanism. 
There may be a nominal king. I do not object to 
that. Names do not change anything. I would as 
lief have a man or a woman (I would rather have a 
woman, on an average !) to be called king or queen 
as to have a man to be called president. And as to 
the class of nobility, there have been periods when 
they, or when the nobility combined with the mon- 
arch, were adapted to the conditions of the people ; 
but as the people are themselves becoming intelligent, 



850 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

they are tending toward a state of things tliat will 
inevitably make them partners of the great governing 
power. England is working toward self-government. 

The republican form of government is the noblest 
and the best, as it is the latest. It is the latest be- 
cause it demands the highest conditions for its exist- 
ence. Self-government by the whole people is the 
teleologic idea. It is to be the final government of 
the world. As to whether the world is ripe enough 
to develop such a government, which shall be able to 
maintain itself through any considerable number of 
generations, it is useless to speculate. 

But the process of developing a good and stable 
republican government may go through ages. It is 
not a settled fact at all, that, because we have come 
into a republican government, this nation is going 
to live and be perfected in it ; because it is often the 
case that one government rises up and works out one 
or two elements of the great scheme which God is 
developing in this world, and then dissolves, and that 
the next government takes up and carries forward 
that which the first began. It may be that the 
work which we have begun is to be taken up and car- 
ried forward by a government that is to succeed this. 
Yet there is a counter analogy to this, — the fact 
that God is giving to nations that have declined, and 
wellnigh lost their national life, rejuvenescence. We 
see what was never before seen, — a nation, after hav- 
ing died, come to life again. Italy has found res- 
urrection, and is growing strong. Spain has been 
resuscitated, and is growing strong. Even Austria is 
coming up from senility, and seems to be growing 
strong. Nations now seem to have a recuperative 



THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 351 

power. And two things are possible in respect to our 
.own people. Having taken the first steps in the dem- 
onstration of the great doctrine of the government 
of the people by the people, our whole national life 
may collapse, and new nations may come up and carry 
on that doctrine in its later development ; or, having 
gone through one period of our growth, we may re- 
new our youth, and go on again in the same grand 
and divine experiment of government which we have 
wrought out thus far. 

And let me say here, that republican governments 
cannot be had by any mere legislation. They must 
be the effect of compelling causes. Government is an 
outworking of the spirit of the people, and it holds a 
constant relation to their actual condition. 

If men are ignorant, or morally low, even under 
republics, they will cease to be self-governing. They 
will be led by cunning men, who will gain power over 
them by courting their passions, and lead them, not 
according to the decisions and judgments of the 
masses, but according to the schemes and plans of 
those who acquire a surreptitious influence over them. 

This is the meaning of our text, " That the hypo- 
crite reign not, lest the people be ensnared." Under 
republican governments it is possible for men to be 
ensnared by cunning men, and, while they seem to be 
controlling their own destinies, to be themselves abso- 
lutely controlled and guided and governed. 

There will always be large classes of men whose 
spirit and training will cause them to be antago- 
nistic to self-government. Proud and haughty na- 
tures are the perpetual enemies of republicanism. 
There are institutions in society — some of them rclig- 



352 FREEDOM AND WAK. 

ious institutions — that nourish the spirit of govern- 
ing. Even the teaching of God's supremacy, and of a 
certain delegation of Divine authority to those who 
teach it, comes to be an inculcation of government in 
such a sense as to train men to the love of governing. 
Always, in every republican government, there are 
large elements which tend away from that government 
toward a strong government. 

Yet, in spite of all delays and retrocessions and 
plottings, unquestionably the human race are develop- 
ing right on toward this final and best form of gov- 
ernment. In every generation tyranny contracts its 
sphere ; and now we see the beginnings of the prepa- 
ration for a higher type of government. Despotisms 
are becoming constitutional monarchies, constitutional 
monarchies are becoming aristocracies, and aristoc- 
racies are becoming republican governments. And 
the tendency of the whole world at present, in every 
one of its departments, is to develop tlie common 
people. Almost every influence that is working in 
the world now, judging it from hundred years to 
hundred years, is flowing in one direction ; and that 
direction is toward the emancipation and elevation 
and education and empowering of the great mass of 
mankind. 

The tendency of religion is in this direction. It has 
worked out one vein, and hierarchies have had their 
day. It is taking on more democratic forms, and it 
will take them on from this time forth. 

The spirit of missions has had an important and 
unsuspected democratic influence. The attempt of 
Christian nations, at a vast expense, and with great 
trouble, to civilize poor, miserable barbarians, has 



THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 353 

been itself a testimony to the worth of poor, miserable 
barbarians. It has had a tendency to increase in the 
popular estimation the value of a man without regard 
to his accidents, without regard to his condition or 
circumstances. Man, merely as a creature of God 
and an heir of immortality, has risen in the market. 
Before Christianity was revealed, do you suppose any 
nation on earth were such fools as to spend millions 
of annual dollars to civilize barbarians ? Before the 
time of Christ, it was an offence punishable with slav- 
ery or death to be a foreigner. If a mariner was ship- 
wrecked upon a foreign coast, he was put to death or 
made a slave, on the charge of being a foreigner. 
Clear down to the days of the Apostles, to be a foreigner 
was to be nothing at all. The Greeks did not recog- 
nize human existence except as Greek existence. 
They counted all the rest of the world as trash, liter- 
ally and truly. They learned no languages but their 
own. The Greek tongue prevailed in Greece, and 
there was not another language spoken there. The 
Greeks scorned to learn any language but their own. 
They called other languages noises. The Greek tongue 
was considered a language articulate, having sense and 
philosophy and reason, and all other nations besides 
the Greeks were said to 7nake noises, in distinction 
from speaking. And their contempt of other peoples, 
previous to the setting forth of the Gospel, — how does 
it stand in contrast with the spirit of modern Christian 
nations ! For England and France and Germany and 
America are sending out, every year, scores and scores 
of men elected and consecrated to the work of evan- 
gelization abroad. They give their lives freely to that 
work, and countless treasures are raised at home for 



354 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

their sustenance while they are ministering to barba- 
rians in other lands. What a witness is this to the 
value of man ! What a thing is worth, is to be meas- 
ured by what men will do and suffer for it. And 
silently, imperceptibly, and unconsciously, missions 
have become democratic, and have raised in the esti- 
mation of the world the worth of man ; — not this man 
vr that man ; not a man of this nation, or a man 
"»f that nation ; not a civilized man ; not a man of 
genius ; not a man of skill ; not a man of learning ; 
but man with just the original attributes that God 
gave him. Religious influences, for two thousand 
years, have been meliorating laws and policies and 
governments so as to bring them more on the side of 
the people. 

And now, at last, almost all the great causes of 
human conduct are working in that direction. If 
you examine the tendency of inventions and mechanic 
arts, you shall find that, although they work for all 
men, they do not work half so much for the rich, the 
strong, and the wise, as they do for the poor, the 
weak, and the ignorant. When steam was invented, 
it was the poor man's invention ; for it has elevated 
the poor man ten degrees where it has the rich man 
one. Now the poor man can travel the world over. 
Once, only the rich man could do it ; but steam has 
made them equal. The rich man always could wear 
fine fabrics. The poor man could not, till steam made 
manufacturing cheap. The rich man always could 
have luxuries. The poor man could not, till art and 
science were applied to domestic institutions and 
common life ; and then he could. Now the poor man 
has better food than- the rich man used to have, 



THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 355 

and he knows better how to cook it than the ricli man 
once did. There is not a trnckman in New York 
that does not Hve better than Alexander lived. There 
is not a seamstress that does not have on her table 
things that would have made Queen Elizabeth stare. 
Take the bill of provender, I was going to say, of 
Shakespeare's time. You might almost call it fod- 
der, it was so coarse, and so much like animals' food. 
We should think ourselves treated worse than the 
prisoners at Sing Sing, if we had to live as the royalty 
did three or four hundred years ago. They would 
have been glad to live as our poor people live now, 
who are clothed better than they were, who have 
better houses than they had, and whose instruments 
of labor necessitate less drudgery than theirs did. 
For every machine, although when first invented it 
seems to supersede the laborer, has the effect to raise 
the laborer one step higher. Every time an iron 
muscle is invented, it gives emancipation to human 
muscle. Every time you enslave a machine, — a 
slave that you have a right to hold in bondage, — you 
set free ten thousand slaves that ought not to be held 
in bondage. And these are revolutionizing forces 
that you cannot get around. You might as well 
imdertake to change the course of the Gulf Stream 
as to undertake to arrest their tendency. 

And that which is true of art is also true of litera 
ture. If you go back to the time of Sterne and 
Swift, you shall not find, I had almost said, a single 
generous, humanitarian sentiment in their writings. 
One thing is certain, — that down to the time of Cow- 
per, the English literature (that part which comprised 
the poems particularly) was filled with a supercilious 



356 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

contempt for the common people. The boors, the 
peasants, the yeomen, were considered as mats on 
which fine people might rub their feet and clean their 
shoes ; as good for nothing in themselves, and ser- 
viceable only by reason of their relation to the 
upper classes. And the spirit of humanity, the ap- 
preciation of human worth under a rough exterior, 
and, above all, the desire for the welfare of every 
man, — these sprang up within the last hundred years. 
Our literature has been growing purer. Nor is it so 
with ours alone ; for the French literature has im- 
proved as well as ours. I do not know that the 
French have as many Tract Societies as we have. 
But if it is religious to aim to develop the poor, and 
to create a powerful tendency toward humanity and 
self-sacrifice and purity, then such writers as Victor 
Hugo are religious writers. They are not spiritual 
writers, but they are religious, in that they are aiming 
toward the evangelization of the masses of men. And 
the literature of the globe to-day is humane, at least, 
if it is not spiritual. 

If you go from literature to art, you find this still 
more remarkably illustrated. The days are waning 
in which royalty, aristocrats, and rich men can be 
said to be the chief patrons of art ; and he that 
would be exalted as an artist must humble himself, 
and accept the divine idea of the grandeur of the 
common people, and not disdain their sympatliy and 
their patronage. I do not object to those who paint- 
ed the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus ; but I think 
the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus are more to us 
than they were to those that painted them. What 
are they to us ? Mother and child. Mary and Jesus 



THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 357 

were for a particular age. Mother and child are 
"universal. They are something that comes home to 
every household and every heart. And the Madonna 
and her child are more to us, I say, than they were 
to those that painted them. And though I do not ob- 
ject to the painting of antique subjects, the subjects 
of past days, unquestionably the living schools are to 
be the schools that feel themselves called to work for 
the common people, and in the direction of true and 
Christian democracy. 

Once a picture was significant of almost royal pos- 
sessions. It is becoming less and less significant of 
wealth. Indeed, I think that pictures are less apt to 
be found where there is sudden wealth, than where 
there is real culture and good taste in comparative 
poverty. More and more every year pictures are 
coming to be owned by persons of moderate and slen- 
der means, because they have an appetite for beauty, 
and must have beauty to feed it. One flower in the 
room of a seamstress who looks at it every other 
stitch, is worth more than the garden of a king which 
he disdains to walk in. So there is a love of art be- 
ginning to develop in the common people. And all 
things are tending to make it possible for the common 
people to gratify their taste in this direction. 

Once nobody could own a book unless he had a for- 
tune. Now a man that cannot afford to own a book 
ought to die ; he is too poor to live ! It is the cheap- 
est thing there is. Rum and reading are the two 
cheapest commodities of the globe ! 

Take one single invention, — photography. The 
world will never die after this. It will live in shadow. 
We shall have our uncles and aunts, our fathers and 



358 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

mothers, our cliildren, and our children in every 
year's stage ; and we can keep them. What a shad- 
owy army is marching, in the shape of photographic 
portraits, to the next generation ! that it could 
have been so in days past ! My mother died when I 
was but a small child, and I do not remember to have 
ever seen her face. And as there was no pencil that 
could afford to limn her, I have never seen a likeness 
of her. Would to God that I could see some picture 
of my mother! No picture that hangs on prince's 
wall, or in gallery, would I not give, if I might 
choose, for a faithful portrait of my mother. Give 
me that above all otlier pictures under God's can- 
opy. My children are richer than I was when I 
was a child. The child of the poorest man in this 
congregation is richer than the child of the richest 
man was then. 

And not only is photography enabling us to pre- 
serve our friends, but it is bringing the whole world 
to a man's door. You can look upon the monuments 
of Egypt, and at the same time toast your feet at 
your own fire. All the palaces of the globe are 
brought to you, as are also the mountains and rivers 
of distant countries. The very battle-field of Antie- 
tam was here almost as soon as the news of the battle 
reached us ; and before the dead were buried, we 
had portrayed their mangled and swollen forms. 

And not only is photography taking representations 
of all the natural and artificial wonders of the globe, 
so that the poorest man can have the shadowy por- 
trait of everything on earth ; but it is taking even 
the secrets of the sun and moon. 

And these are but single instances of elements 



which are, as we see, working to make rich and 
strong men richer and stronger, to be sure, but work- 
ing ten thousand times more to make the poor and 
the weak rich and strong. 

And as in respect to these elements, so in respect 
to learning and education. Always the rich have 
been able to educate their children. Not always 
have the poor been able to do it. But now every- 
thing is working toward the education of the common 
people. 

So that at this time, while governments are ameli- 
orating, while absolute monarchies are changing to 
constitutional monarchies, while constitutional mon- 
archies are becoming aristocracies, while aristocracies 
are more and more diffusing themselves, and sharing 
their power with the masses, while all tendencies are 
toward self-government in political forms, — at this 
time, while these things are taking place, religion 
and art and learning and science and inventions are 
co-operating. There is one direction to all these 
forces. God's hand, like a sign-board, is pointing 
toward democracy, and saying to the nations of the 
earth, " This is the way : walk ye in it." The road 
is very muddy in some spots, and the march will bo 
slow, but the march will be one way ; and though 
it may be like the march into summer out of winter, 
or like the march of Israel out of Egypt into the 
promised land, summer and the promised land — self- 
government — will at last be reached. 

Let us look, then, in the light of these remarks, at 
some of the relations of our own times to this ten- 
dency. 

The first thing to which I will call your attention 



3G0 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

is that extraordinary contrast which exists between 
this country and the other countries of the world, — 
the most extraordinary, I think, that was ever exhib- 
ited under the sun. Europe, starting from a point of 
abject despotism, has, for the last two hundred years, 
been steadily unfolding, and throwing off its cere- 
ments, and working its limbs, and preparing its feet 
for marching. Nay, it has begun to march. And 
though its way is through revolutions and through 
blood, though it is held back by reactions and retro- 
cessions, yet, on the whole, judged by long periods of 
time, the progress of Europe has been from barbarism 
to Christian civilization ; from absolute monarchies, 
up through constitutional monarchies and aristocra- 
cies, toward governments by the people. And all 
tendencies, however much they may have seemed to 
thwart these things, have really worked for them. 
Europe began at the point of despotism, and she has 
gone toward republicanism until she has all but 
grasped it. 

How was it with America ? We began at the point 
of Christian democracy. There never was so demo- 
cratic a people as we were. There never was a nation 
with such developments of republican ideas. And we 
have steadily marched in the opposite direction. We 
have gone right away from democracy toward aristoc- 
racy. We have tended more and more to deny the 
natural rights of man, and set the strong over the 
weak (the white strong over the black weak), and to 
found a new dynasty, most hateful and odious, until 
we are poisoned in the very veins of our national life, 
in every part of our governmental policy. 

And while Europe has been going in one direction, 



THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 361 

we have met her, going in the other, she bearing the 
dark emblem of despotism, which lias grown briglitcr 
and brighter until it has almost emerged into the glo- 
rious light of liberty, and we bearing a blazing torch 
kindled from the very altar of God, which has grown 
dimmer and dimmer till it has almost sunk into 
Egyptian darkness. There never was another such 
contrast. 

That tendency has been met, and, in so far as the 
free Northern States are concerned, turned back, but 
only just in time for their redemption. But the at- 
tempt to recover ourselves has led to a conflict between 
these opposite elements such as never before raged. 
For this war is a war of ideas ; it is a war of funda- 
mental principles ; it is a war of absolute influences ; 
it is a war between the spirit of absolute government, 
as developed by the necessities of a servile society, and 
the spirit of self-government as developed by the con- 
dition of an intelligent population. 

Now there can hardly be a doubt as to the final 
issue. God's intention is too plainly indicated to leave 
any doubt as to the ultimate state of the world. But 
whether that state is to exist in our day, in our chil- 
dren's time, or in remote ages, no man can tell. We 
know which side, after tumultuous struggles, shall 
have the victory, but whether that victory shall be 
delayed through generations, or whether it shall be 
achieved at once, we do not know. 

Yet, let us take a hopeful view. Let us hope that 
we shall be found adequate to the exigencies which 
have come upon us. Let us not be bribed nor be- 
trayed. There is no question but that the right is 
with us. Every principle of justice and humanity that 

16 



362 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

has been developed in the past cries out to us of the 
North to go forward. Every analogy of God's provi- 
dence calls out to us to advance courageously. Every 
aspiration of the human soul urges us, who are on the 
side of universal liberty, the Hberty of all men, not to 
yield, not to compromise, but to maintain our stand to 
the bitter end, and to the glorious victory therein. 

I believe that this nation will not flinch, and that it 
will stand. Yet I do not know the power of the Devil. 
His minions, his hypocritical agents, are abroad. I do 
not disguise my opinion on this subject, any more than 
on any other. I believe the opposition that has arisen 
against the administration and the government is the 
meanest and most hypocritical that ever existed. I 
would sooner pluck off my right arm than give coun- 
tenance to it in any way. There was a time when I 
felt that all party spirit was being laid aside, and that 
all parties were being united to sustain the adminis- 
tration in the prosecution of this glorious war in tlie 
cause of universal humanity. I was in favor of sink- 
ing all political considerations, and standing by those 
men that best stood by the government. But since 
the enemy has sown tares among us, and an opposition 
has been formed, God do so to me, and more also, if I 
strike hands except with him who is openly and avow- 
edly for liberty, and liberty for every man. I would 
denounce my own brother, I would denounce my own 
father, if he were ranged on the side of these enemies 
of their country and of freedom. I love my God and 
my fellow-men more than any man that carries my 
blood in his veins. And however much men may have 
been my friends, however much I would have been 
glad to help men into places of power, once let them 



THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 3G3 

stand on the side of those detestable hypocrites who 
are undermining with specious pretences the cause 
of liberty, and who, by infamous guises, are feigning 
friendship for an administration which they mean to 
destroy, God do so to me, and more also, if I touch 
them, except with the besom or with the rod of de- 
struction. 

But, although in the main I hope, let us be prepared 
for the worst. We have materials for a terrible con- 
flict among ourselves. It is not the fault of those who 
invite them that we have ndjjre volution ary outbreaks 
in our midst. I have no doubt that there are men in 
New York who would inaugurate blood, murder, and 
revolution, if they dared. The only thing which holds 
them back is a sneaking prudence. But for that we 
should have another era of massacre such as Paris saw 
in the days of the French Revolution. There are men 
in our midst who are so wicked that they do not need 
to go to hell ! They carry it with them ; it is in them ; 
and they are their own devil! And these are the 
men, unquestionably, that are first and foremost as 
plotters in that specious, sinuous friendship that would 
go to the administration, and say, " How art thou, my 
brother ? " while it plunges the dagger under the fifth 
rib. Be not found in their counsels. my soul, 
come not into their secrets. It is not a safe thing for 
a man that keeps well to his God and his country to 
keep such company. Take care whom you go with. 
And when you go to vote, vote so strong for liberty 
that there shall not be any danger in your vote.* 
Throw it as far as you can toward God's throne, to- 
ward God's providence, toward the destiny of the 

* The reference is to the then pending State election of New York. 



364 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

race, toward the final results of Christianity. Throw 
it away from glozhig, deceitful, selfish man. Go with 
the stancliest principles. Go back to the days when 
we had Franklins and Jeffersons and Washingtons, 
and take their utterances, and follow their precepts. 
The only way for us to escape troubles innumerable, 
I thinli, is to fight out this battle which we have en- 
tered upon, with courage and energy, and to the very 
last. You never will have another war so cheap as 
this. Suppose you should make peace with the South 
by sliding these unpriqmpled and subtle politicians 
into power, — suppose you should compel the weak 
hands of the government to yield to a compromise 
with the South, — do you suppose that would bring 
peace in your day ? 

From tlie moment that they get on their feet again, 
every election in the North will turn upon whether 
one State or another shall not go over to the Southern 
interest ; and there will be a fight between Northern 
and Southern interests, and you will have to vote un- 
der the menace of arms, and hold your ground by 
force, or go down before threats. And when it comes 
to threatening, the South is worth a hundred of you. 
When it comes to knuckling, you are worth a hundred 
of the South ! You are on your feet now, and I ad- 
vise you to keep there. Your hands are out, with 
your hearts behind them, and I advise you to keep 
them out. There has never been a sight more despi- 
cable than that of Northern doughfaces in the pres- 
ence of Southern slave-drivers ; and now that North- 
ern manhood is emancipated, and you are standing 
up, I beseech of you in the name of God and humanity, 
do not put yourself again into bondage and servility. 



THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 365 

Money, — will that buy you ? Then stand for lib- 
erty. A slave made free will purchase a hundred 
dollars' worth at your factory where a slave in bond- 
age will purchase one dollar's worth. What does a 
slave want ? How many combs will he buy ? How 
many mirrors ? How much glass ? How many pianos ? 
How many harps ? How many books ? How many 
harnesses ? How many whips ? One in the hands of 
a single man is enough for forty slaves. Freedom 
will diminish exports immensely. Why ? Because, 
when the slaves were slaves, they lived on the least 
conceivable quantity of eve^thing, and there was a 
great surplus for exporting. But the moment you 
make them free, they will become consumers to a 
much greater degree than they have been. If you 
must have a money motive, I advocate freedom on 
this ground. Freedom promotes commerce and man- 
ufactures. There is not a farmer to whom, if his 
plough could speak, it would not say, " Go for free- 
dom, — it will make me bright " ; there is not a 
mechanic to whom his every tool, if it could speak, 
would not say, " Vote for freedom, — it will make me 
lively " ; there is not a ship-builder to whom every 
ship in his yard, if it could speak, would not say, 
" Work for freedom, — it will make me merry on the 
wave " ; there is not a manufacturer to whom his ma- 
chinery, if it could speak, would not say, " Encourage 
freedom, — it will make me musical." 

All the factories in New England, if they could 
vote, would vote for freedom, — except cat-o'-nine-tail 
factories ; I believe they would vote for slavery. No ; 
they would turn about and go to making horsewhips, 
and, on second thought, vote for freedom ! Every 



366 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

interest of agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, 
every industrial interest of the North, will be abun- 
dantly profited by a policy of liberty. As civilization 
increases among men, it makes them more, and mul- 
tiplies their necessities. When a man is a savage, he 
has but one or two faculties to feed ; but when he 
becomes civilized, he has a great many more mouths 
open and calling for food. For the more the human 
mind is developed, the more numerous are its wants 
which must be supplied. And blessed is that nation 
which has to supply the wants of a civilized people. 
They are great consuflws. 

It is supposed that the natural state of a man is 
simplicity. No, it is complexity. The natural state 
of a man is like that of a tree. And what is the last 
state of an oak, but to divide and subdivide, and 
spread out infinite branches on every side ? The first 
state of a man, like the first state of a tree, may be 
simplicity, and he may be, as it were, a single whip ; 
but as he begins to grow he will throw out branches, 
and these branches will throw out other branches, 
and those will throw out others, and he will take in 
more by root and leaf. Every interest that makes 
money and intelligence pleads for a policy of liberty. 

And since there is a necessity for it, since by the 
voice of the highest officer of the nation it has been 
declared that emancipation is a military necessity, let 
us stand by that which we have got. Let us not fall 
back one single step in this great conflict, in which 
thus far God has so gloriously led us. For if this 
nation falls to pieces in your day, or in your child's 
day, will it come together again ? No hand has ever 
yet restored the Phidian marbles. No architect has 



THE GROUND AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT. 367 

ever rebuilt Athens. The Acropolis is dishevelled and 
rent, a monument of her death, and a memorial of 
her past glory. But it is easier to bring together 
shattered temples than it will be to bring together 
the shattered principles of this great temple of liberty 
which has been reared in this country, if you permit 
it to be rent. It is a doctrine of devils, this doctrine 
of division. While you have the power, hold the 
nation together. Weld it. Secure the unity of this 
people, voluntary at the North, and compelled at the 
South. One government, one Constitution, one polit- 
ical doctrine which makes all men free and equal, — 
that shall be the glory of the continent ; that shall be 
the prophecy of the future ; that shall bring down 
the blessing of God, against which all the machina- 
tions of the Devil shall not prevail. 



XYI. 

OUR GOOD PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS* 

" And the spirit cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him: and he 
was as one dead ; insomuch that many said, He is dead. But Jesus took 
him by the hand, and lifted him up; and he arose." — Mark ix. 26, 27. 




T was the peculiarity of demoniac posses- 
sion that the evil spirit seated at the centre 
of the victim's life dispossessed his will, 
and acted through all his organs by the in- 
fernal volition of the usurper. Thus, every sense 
and every function was controlled by this demoniac 
influence. The sight, the hearing, the touch, the rea- 
son, and all the voluntary powers, were subject to its 
control. 

This nation has been possessed of the Devil. Like 
those of old, it seated itself at the centre of life and 
volition. It lodged at the vital centre of government. 
It held in its grasp the great nerve of commerce. It 
controlled the nation's great heart and brain. It 
managed its eyes, its tongue, its hand. This nation 
saw and tasted and heard and felt what its demon 
told it to. 

We read that the evil was of long standing in the 
case from which we have selected our text ; that the 



* Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 1862. 



OUR GOOD PROGRESS AND TROSPECTS. 369 

victim grew worse ; that no one could cure him ; that 
the demon had subjected its wretched object of perse- 
cution to numberless torments. 

The parent declared that this demon " teareth 
him." And so hath it done with us. All the causes 
of trouble together for fifty years, in this nation, have 
not been so rending as this one demon. 

" He foameth, and gnasheth with his teeth," the 
father said. This is painted to the life. We have 
seen it in Congress, in legislatures, in caucuses. 
Wherever the Southern temper has been, there was 
foaming and gnashing of teeth. 

" Ofttimes," saith the father, " it hath cast him into 
the fire, and into the waters, to destroy him." By 
sea and by land, slavery has kept us on fire, leading 
us into war with weaker nations, laying schemes for 
filibustering, prompting the robbery of coveted islands 
and isthmuses, and agitating the world with Ostend 
manifestoes, which were so many diplomatic bombs, 
filled with destructive material. 

When the demon saw Christ, " straightway the 
spirit tare him ; and he fell on the ground, and wal- 
lowed, foaming." Whenever the foul fiend of slavery 
lias been met with the truths of the Christian religion, 
it has gone into paroxysms of fury in like manner. 
The mildest enunciation of the sublime and eternal 
truth of a higher law, of a law of unchangeable 
right, that overshadows legislatures and silently an- 
nuls their evil, that surrounds justice and liberty 
with the everlasting safeguards of God's decrees, — 
the enunciation in the mildest form of this superem- 
inent truth on which God's government stands, set 
half a continent foaming and wallowing. 

16* X 



370 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

At length the day of deliverance came to this pos- 
sessed child. But what tyrant ever forsook his power 
peaceably ? The foul spirit that could not remain 
was determined, if possible, that nothing else should 
ever come after it. Impelled by the mysterious and 
irresistible words, '^ Come out," it rent the victim 
sore, and " he was as one dead." 

And now the divine exorcism has been spoken. 
God has said to slavery, " Come out of the Union, 
and enter no more into it " ; and, mad and spiteful, 
it is wastmg the whole South, and threatening to 
burn its cities, to desolate its fields, to efface its civili- 
zation, and to leave the land as a wilderness. 

There is an exquisite pathos in the rest of tlie nar- 
rative. Men who only looked upon the outside of 
things said, " He is dead," — because he had got 
well. " But Jesus took him by the hand, and lifted 
him up, and he arose." 

Yes, after the spasm, the convulsion, the deatli- 
swoon, in this fair, demonized South, there shall come 
a better hour. A Saviour shall reach forth his hand ; 
industry shall revive ; schools shall shine ; churches, 
with a pure rehgion, shall arise ; and on the demo- 
niac ruins shall stand health, strength, peace, reason, 
conscience, and love. 

But one more circumstance demands our notice. 
The friends of this miserable victim had sought relief 
even from the disciples of Christ ; but they could not 
heal him. Neither could the temple priests nor the 
Jewish exorcists or physicians ; for none of them had 
the skill or courage to hit the root of the evil. They 
were putting plasters beliind the head of the man that 
had the devil inside of him. They were giving him 



OUR GOOD PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS. 871 

gentle physics and mild deobstruents. They were at- 
tempting to treat the devil by the skin, who sat in the 
very centre of the heart and brain. And, of course, 
they could not cast him out. No medicine could 
loose his tongue, or free his eyes, or give quiet to his 
brain, till the foul spirit at the heart was expelled. 
They tried remedies ; they employed persuasive argu- 
ments ; they sought, doubtless, by every ingenious 
device, to cure the mischief, and to keep tlie devil in 
him ; — in short, they were conservatives ! Superficial, 
unthorough, timid, foolish, — that it is to be conserva- 
tive. Wherever there is a mere question of facts, a 
man may be conservative, or may be radical, and may 
be right or wrong, as the case may be ; but in all 
cases which turn on a moral truth, a man is a fool that 
is a conservative, and no man is wise but a radical. 
Since the times are showing it so loudly, we may dare 
to speak out at last, and say so. The moment the 
blow was struck at the root, no more need was there 
of medicine or of palliatives. When the cause of the 
evil was removed, all the symptoms ran away too ; for 
when God and the Devil stand face to face, one or the 
other must utterly fail. There is no ground for com- 
promise or peace between them. 

Without a doubt, there were a great many Phari- 
sees and priests and statesmen of the temple, who 
disapproved of this rash act of exorcism, as they 
deemed it. " There," said they, " see how the victim 
is convulsed ! " And when he lay half dead, they said, 
" Did we not tell you so ? See what your meddling 
has done ! " For then, as now, there were men who 
would rather see the strength which the Devil inspires 
in men and nations, than that weakness which Christ 



372 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

brings, and out of which God ordains strength that 
shall never be overthrown. 

A second time has this nation been called, by its 
magistrates, in the midst of war, to celebrate a day of 
thanksgiving. As if the elements had heard the mes- 
sage, and sympathized, this morning has broken fair. 
The storm has passed. The sun is out. There is not 
a cloud in the heavens. And yet many there be that 
say, "What have we to be thankful for?" Thou- 
sands of families are in mourning. A great nation is 
beating itself with war-blows. Every day, taxes, like 
emerging coral reefs, are shallowing the waters, and 
hemming us in. Business is disturbed. The nation 
is in convulsion. Foreign peoples are looking on, 
some in sympathy, some doubtful, and some saying, 
eagerly, " Liberty is dead ! " *' Is this a time," say 
many, " for thanksgiving ? " But this is only the out- 
side. If God gives us faith to pierce to the centre, and 
see what is really going on ; if God shall let us see 
what the dying of slavery is, and that Christ is helping 
us by blessed exorcism ; if he will interpret to us what 
this weakness portends which lies between demoniac 
possession and self-possession, and enable us to com- 
prehend that it is like the prelude to a sweet sleep 
such as crises bring on a fevered patient ; if he shall 
reveal to us the fiery fever on the one side, and on the 
other rest and health, — then we shall find more reason 
for thanksgiving than ever before on any day of the 
two hundred and forty and more years since this anni- 
versary was begun upon these shores. Those that 
look with the senses, to-day, perhaps shall find little 
occasion for thanksgiving ; but I declare my faith that 
never in one of all the years that have marched in pro- 



OUR GOOD PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS. 373 

cession since the Pilgrims' feet made this soil sacred, 
has there been a thanksgiving day with such deep and 
all-comprehending reasons for thanksgiving. 

But that we may help those who receive their im- 
pressions largely through the senses, let us first reca- 
pitulate some of the grounds and causes of gladness 
and thanksgiving that are material. 

I. We take notice of the blessings of the season ; 
and earliest and best of these, I call you to take notice 
of, and to give God thanks for, the prevalence of uni- 
versal health throughout the whole loyal North, almost 
without exception. For continuous months, and ever 
since this mighty struggle began, no desolating pesti- 
lence, no wasting disease, has been among us. It is 
to be noted, too, that for two years the scourge of tlie 
tropics has been mostly withheld. This is the greater 
mercy, since our un acclimated soldiers have been open 
to its invisible sword, which no skill can parry, and no 
shield can ward off. It is true that this year a few 
have fallen ; but how few ! Among them was the ar- 
dent and enthusiastic Mitchel, who died at his post, in 
the ripeness of years, with his armor on, and fortunate, 
thrice fortunate, that the door of heaven opened to 
him, not from among the stars, where he loved to 
wander, but from among Christ's poor and helpless 
disciples, whom he was beginning to teach, inspire, in- 
struct, and defend. It might be glorious to enter into 
rest from the martyr's stake, or from the field of battle, 
whose hoarse music melts strangely on many an ear 
into the entrancing melodies of heaven ; it might en- 
kindle our imaginations more to conceive of one taken 
from the astronomer's chair, where he had been found 
in the morning, after having kept nightly watch, pass- 



374 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

ing, with reason and philosophy, from orb to orb, into 
brighter spheres, as from glory to glory ; but better, 
far better, nobler, and more sublime, was his going, 
who walked through the valley and the shadow of 
death from out of the lowest door on earth, — that 
very door of the poor through which his Master came 
into the world ; and who, all the way from the planta- 
tions of Beaufort to the throne of God, heard airy 
voices exultingly say, "Inasmuch as ye did it unto 
the least of these, ye did it unto the King." Rest I 
Thy sun arose and forgot to set. It went not down ; 
but from very noon rose into the unhorizoned heaven. 

II. Through this year of health, God has made sucli 
harvests as seldom have waved across the earth. The 
muster of the harvest-fields has been more wonder- 
ful than any other gatherings. The poor have not 
anywhere cried for bread among us. Armies liave 
been easily fed. Commerce has felt her strength re- 
vived by the abundance of the crops. Orchards have 
drooped to the earth and kissed the ground with tlie 
fruit which came thence. Vines have given joy to 
the vintage. Corn and wheat glut the canals, and 
overburden the engines of every road. Our ware- 
houses are full of food. Nay, we give our breasts to 
the poor of other lands. Though at war, and suffer- 
ing grievous burdens, we feed the cotton-spinners of 
Lancashire and the silk-weavers of Lyons. 

III. By this sovereign mercy of God, in the seasons,- 
labor has been made abundant and remunerative 
among us. While the government pays liberally those 
that are in the army, their withdrawal has enhanced 
the value of the services of those that work at home. 
And so it has come to pass, in this day of general dis- 



OUR GOOD PROGRESS AND TROSPECTS. 375 

turbance, in this time of war, that there never before 
came to us an autumn when so much labor was so 
well paid. And, on the whole, the poor ai^e going 
into the winter on a footing much beyond the common 
average in the preparation made for their comfort and 
support. 

lY. Now let a stranger go through New England, 
through New York, through Pennsylvania, through 
Ohio, through the great States of the Northwest, and 
would he know that it was a time of war, if he 
heard no one speak, anfl if he received no messages 
except those which came by the sight of his eye ? By 
the languishing of the field, by the emptiness of the 
granary, by the cattle gone, by the usual tokens of 
unthrift, would he know that there was war on this 
great half-hemisphere ? Tokens there are, in that 
there are many eyes that drop tears, many hearts that 
ache, and many churches that lack both pastors and 
principal men ; but on the side of physical society, 
there are almost no tokens of war among us. And 
yet, for nearly two years, it has been steadily pulling 
at our tendons, and draining our veins. 

V. Meanwhile, schools are open, and little scholars 
throng the valleys ; and all through the Free States 
there is no sign of war in the school-house. Acade- 
mies are open. Churches are open, and their musi- 
cal bells give consolation up and down through all 
the Free States. And still papers fly, books are read, 
business thrives, and the fields give their bounty. 
Nothing to be thankful for? There never was a 
spectacle more sublime than that which it has pleased 
God to make manifest in the superabundant prosper- 
ity of the great thriving North in the midst of its con- 
vulsion and trouble and war. 



876 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

With tliese remarks, we pass to other considera- 
tions. In the survey of the year, we must dismiss 
from ovrv minds the partialities and prejudices that 
have colored the thick-flying events of the day, and 
rise, now, at last, to the more comprehensive views of 
the truths that underlie them. We must have a clear 
estimate of our real condition and prospects, of what 
is the meaning of things that have happened, and of 
what is the tendency of things that stand prophesying, 
and see if we cannot find, in the great exhibitions 
that are to be witnessed by tlffe understanding and by 
faith, abundant occasion for thanksgiving over and 
above physical reasons. 

This nation has passed through the period of the 
evolution of slaverj^ and its nature, and the experi- 
ment is ended. Slavery has had time to develop its 
nature upon a better field than it ever before occu- 
pied in the history of the world. It has had a chance 
to develop itself in the midst of Christianity, in the 
midst of civilization, in the midst of the inspirations 
of civil liberty ; not under a despotism, but under a 
republican government, and under a policy, too, that 
gave to it, every year, or decade of years, all the 
healthy blood necessary to repair the wastes which 
its own nature made. If ever there was a field on 
which the experiment of the full, inevitable nature 
of slavery could be developed, that field has been in 
this land. 

In the beginning, slavery seemed to be an accident 
of our country ; and the experiment of its spread, of 
its relations to industry, and, afterwards, of its rela- 
tions to morals, to political economy, and to govern- 
ment, was for a long time doubtful. It is not doubt- 



OUR GOOD PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS. 611 

fill any more. The experiment has been wrought 
out, and there is no more doubt as to the essential 
nature of slavery. There are some that still pretend 
that it is good, and good in such a nation as this ; 
but they are either men that do not think at all, or 
that, at heart, believe in tyranny. The results can 
never be again concealed or covered up. 

The effect of slavery on the slaves may yet be a 
matter of speculation, or even of sentiment ; but the 
effect of slavery on the master can no longer be a 
matter of speculation, and it never was a matter of 
sentiment. While many point to the condition of the 
African as a test of the virus of the system, we may 
differ from them so far as to say that the first effects 
upon the African, peradventure, may be good. I 
do not doubt that, when a ship-load of natives are 
brought from Central Africa to America, and placed 
where they come under the influence of even the low 
civilization that inheres in the masters, there will be 
a certain skin-deep benefit accruing to them from it. 
The mischief is not that it does not begin to do the 
slave good, but that, as soon as it begins to sprout 
him, it will not let him grow. It germinates him, 
and then cuts him off at the root. The slave is used 
as grass, to be browsed on ; that which is required 
being a strong root and a quick growth. 

But that is no longer a matter of prime impor- 
tance. The effect of slavery on the white citizen is 
not a matter of speculation any more. It is patent ; 
it is undeniable ; there it is ; war has revealed it, 
never to be concealed again ; and we know that men 
who live under the influences of a system of slavery 
are men in whom patriotism cannot inhere, in whom 



378 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

public spirit cannot exist, and in whom nationality 
cannot be present. If there lias been one thing 
brought to the surface and made apparent, it is that 
the spirit of slavery has cut up the spirit of nation- 
ality and patriotism, root and branch. It was sup- 
posed that the South, full of lordly natures, was more 
impulsively patriotic than the calculating North ; but 
in the time of trial, the North, that was supposed to 
be actuated by paltry and mercenary feelings, has 
been found standing nobly careless of loss, and giving 
up everything she had rather than see one hair fall 
from the head of nationality ; and the patriotism of 
the South, that has always boasted of her chivalric 
feelings, snapped like a pipe-stem. With the excep- 
tion of some localities in the mountainous portion of 
Tennessee (and let her not be overlooked), where, 
practically, slavery is almost unknown, the whole 
South went down, when the wind of rebellion struck 
them, as rotten trees before a hurricane. Slavery had 
rotted them ; and war made it manifest. 

Men, on going out in the morning after a violent 
storm has raged through the niglit, and seeing mighty 
trees that have been laid prostrate, say, " The storm 
overthrew them." Not so. Go and look at the 
stump. See how for twenty years rot has been inside. 
There is a ring of health on the outside, but inside 
all is disease ; and the storm only discloses what the 
rot within has done. The tree has long been decayed, 
and it has only needed a little puff to overthrow it. 

The effect of slavery upon intelligence and religion 
is also now apparent. We have learned that the cen- 
tral policy which slavery makes indispensable for its 
own continuance corrupts religion, and prevents 



OUR GOOD PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS. 379 

education. It is not an experimental matter any- 
longer : it is a fact. You can have intelligence wast- 
ing slavery ; you can have intelligence as the cause 
of the cure of slavery ; but if slavery is to exist 
as the accepted centre of any political system, it 
is indispensable that the slaves should be ignorant. 
Why ? Because every single step of intelligence 
opens a door of want. If a master owns twenty 
men, and is obliged to feed them, he cannot afford 
more than one mouth to each. That is as much 
as he wants to supply. But if you begin to edu- 
cate a slave, you increase the number of his mouths ; 
and his physical mouth is the least expensive 
of them all. And twenty men thoroughly waked 
up in their faculties are more than any one man 
could ever feed. If you educate slaves, you make 
them better workmen ; but you at the same time 
make the expense of maintaining them so onerous 
that you break the back of the system. So, if slavery 
is preserved and made profitable, ignorance must pre- 
vail throughout the Slave States; and if you must 
have night for the slave, where are you going to get 
daylight for the white man ? If there are no means 
of enlightenment for the million little pickaninny Af- 
ricans, where are the means of enlightenment for the 
other million pickaninny white children ? It is in point 
of fact, as it is in point of philosophy, true, that where 
there is darkness enough to keep a slave a brute, there 
will be darkness enough to keep a white man next 
to a brute. It is the ignorance of the white people 
of the South, essential to the existence of slavery, 
that has been wrought into that fulminating powder 
which has blown up the nation ; and we know it. 



380 FEEEDOM AND WAE. 

When the soldiers come back from the war, there 
will be five hundred thousand men who will say, 
^' Southern men do not know anything ; they are igno- 
rant, wasteful, shiftless, miserable fellows." 

It cannot be denied that, as an element of political 
economy, slavery utterly disturbs the balance of af- 
fairs in every Slave State ; for, although much money 
is made by slave labor, and although the slaveholding 
States, many of them, are rich, the question is not as 
to their wealth, but as to where that wealth is lodged. 

If there has fallen, on an average, a foot of snow 
over all the State, every man's sleigh can run along 
the road. But suppose a foot of snow has fallen over 
all the State, and the winds have blown it into one or 
two valleys, who can get through it, or travel on it ? 
Now, prosperous wealth falls evenly over the whole 
community, and into the hands of the many ; but 
when the wealth of the community is possessed by a 
few men, it blocks up the road, and there is no facility 
of travel. 

And in regard to the Southern States, we know — 
it is a matter, not of speculation, but of statistics — 
that, where slave labor produces great wealth, it pro- 
duces great wealth in the hands of the few, and not 
in the hands of the many ; and that where a thou- 
sand men are so rich that they wade knee-deep in 
money, fifty thousand are so poor that they barely 
have the necessaries of life. It is said that the 
Southern soldiers are better than ours, because they 
have been used to getting along on next to nothing, 
eating little, and having but the coarsest and poorest 
food at that. 

Slavery makes not only aristocracy, but plutocracy, 



OUR GOOD PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS. 381 

which is the most dangerous kind of aristocracy. It 
is a patent fact, and not a matter of speculation, that 
it gives into the hands of a few the power of a whole 
State. We may not have suspected it before ; we 
may not have deduced it from any philosophical prem- 
ises ; but now we see it, — that the South has been 
controlled by a few men. In each State a few men 
liave shaped the policy of that State. And so it comes 
to pass, in the South, that by reason of this plutocracy 
one or two hands govern all the rest of the hands. 
One hand in Georgia is as strong as a thousand in 
New York, so far as the management of public affairs 
is concerned. What would you think of voting, if one 
man could cast a thousand votes ? And yet there are 
men there of whom this is substantially true. Their 
sole will is worth ten thousand votes. It always has 
been so, and it will always continue to be so, as. long 
as this system is perpetuated. 

Where this disproportioned power exists, even in 
the Free States, it is dangerous ; but when it is held 
by men that scoff at the fundamental ideas of Ameri- 
can institutions, — by men that deny and deride the 
natural rights of mankind, — by men that laugh to 
scorn the principle of universal liberty, — and, above 
all, by men that foam at the mouth and detestingly 
curse the conception of political equality, — when this 
disproportioned political power, which pevails by rea- 
son of slavery, is held by such men, it is dangerous 
beyond anything that the mind can conceive. And it 
strikes like a hammer at the Capitol with the weight 
of whole States. 

These things have been found out. We knew that 
something was the matter ; but we did not know what. 



B82 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

The patient was sick. Dr. Clay lias been giving liim 
the rhubarb of compromise, and Dr. Webster has been 
giving him some diluents and aperients ; but nothing 
seemed to set him up. And when, at last, they had 
got him on his. back, we called in the surgeon, whose 
name is War, who took his surgical knife, the sword, 
and cut him oj^en. And now we see what is the mat- 
ter. He is rotten in the kidneys, rotten in the 
stomach, rotten in the liver, rotten in the lungs, rot- 
ten in the heart, rotten in the brain. Now sew him 
up, and let him go ! 

It is no small thing to have been able to dissect this 
«affair down to the very vitals, and make report of the 
case, so that we know that it is not merely Abolition- 
ists telling lies about slavery, that very good thing, 
but that slavery is in its own self an ulcer. 

We have found out, still further, that Slave States 
and Free States, on account of the discordance in the 
essential nature of their respective institutions, can- 
not coexist under one constitution or government. I 
do not say theoretically that we have found this out, 
but practically. There are two inferences from one 
premiss. Both the North and the South have at 
last come to one conclusion, — namely, that there 
cannot be under one government two sections, one 
a slaveholding, and the other a free-labor section. 
The South, which is always more philosophical than 
the much-educated North, long ago found it out ; 
and it began this rebellion with the declaration that 
the North and the South, whose ideas and institu- 
tions were so different, could not live together under 
the same government. " It is impossible," said tlie 
South, with one voice, '- for Free States and Slave 



OUR GOOD TROGRESS AND PROSPECTS. 383 

States to be longer controlled by one constitution or 
set of laws." And what was their inference ? Seces- 
sion. The premiss that they laid down was, that the 
Slave States and the Free States could not coexist 
under the same government. And. their conclusion 
was secession. The North denied both the premises 
and the conclusion ; but after seventeen months of 
war the North have at last come to the same premiss. 
And what is their inference ? Emancipation. Here, 
then, the North and the South are agreed. They 
both accept it as a settled fact, that slavery and lib- 
erty cannot coexist under one government. One 
says, " Slavery or liberty must yield " ; and the other 
says, " Amen ; that is so." " Therefore," says the 
South, '^ Secession ! " " Therefore," says the North, 
" Emancipation ! " The argument is fairly put. The 
question is now being tried. The judge that is try- 
ing it is the sword ; and by nothing but the sword is 
it to be adjudicated. 

But stop and think one moment, what a stride has 
been taken ; what an overthrowing there has been of 
old prejudices ; what an opening up there has been 
of the understanding of the nation ; what a mighty 
advance there has been in political truth. What 
seer could have prophesied these things ? Looking 
upon us two years ago, with our miserable quiddling 
arguments and plausible reasonings, not Jeremiah, nor 
Ezekiel, nor Daniel, nor any Apocalyptic prophet, 
could have persuaded you tliat now the North would 
stand where it is, and be so radical as it is, in the full 
belief that there can be no such thing as the coex- 
istence of slavery and liberty under the same govern- 
ment. But this is the universal conviction. There 



384 FKEEDOM AND WAR. 

is no dissension about it. None ? None among sen- 
sible men ! We are all coming to this common 
ground, that there is a radical oppugnancy between 
slavery and its ideas and institutions, and liberty and 
its ideas and institutions. 

It is a great thing to have brought the nation to 
this point ; for now we have simplified the whole mat- 
ter, and the question is, Shall nationality be de- 
stroyed ? Shall the continent be given up to double 
and divided empire ? or shall government, liberty, 
and right maintain ascendency, and assert authority 
over this nation ? The sword is to determine that 
question, — and I have no doubt which way. 

Let other men, therefore, find no argument of 
thanks and of gratitude ; but as for me, from the very 
fulness of my heart, I say, to-day, — and I would lift 
it up, if I could, upon the chant of more angels than 
filled the heaven at the advent of the Saviour, — 
"Glory to God in the highest, and" — erelong — 
" peace on earth, good-will toward men." First and 
chiefest, those for whom Christ felt most and deepest 
were the poor, the dumb, the blind, the unfriended. 

Passing from this end of the experiment, let us find 
a moment's occasion for thanksgiving and grateful feel- 
ing in the result of the great and critical test which 
has been passed upon republican government. We 
have reason to be thankful, to-day, that the system 
of republican government on which all our hopes de- 
pended, and upon which so much of the hope of the 
nations of the world rested, has not been found want- 
ing. Our institutions have been put to the test, and 
they have stood it. Down on the stormy sea this 
nation has at last made its trial-trip, and it has come 



OUR GOOD PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS. 385 

back, and tlio engineers are prepared to report that, 
though some screws have started, and although there 
may be some modifications and changes necessary, 
yet, in the main, the experiment has been a grand 
success, and republican institutions are not a failure. 
Our government is peculiar and complex. Its two 
great characterizing features are the sovereignty of 
individual States, and the sovereignty of the nation, 
over these States, — the independence of local in- 
terests, and the nationality of them all, confederated 
under one government. This government, wdien we 
look at it in comparison with any other govern- 
ment on the eartli, and judge it by the things that 
it has been called to do and to suffer, affords us occa- 
sion for admiration and gratitude. For stability and 
power and — what you may perhaps be surprised to 
hear me say — speed, this republican government 
has surpassed any other government in the world. 
Though I have not hesitated to censure men, not 
excepting my own friends, for what seemed to me 
criminal delay on their part, — for the love I bear to 
my country is greater than the love I bear to any 
man on the globe ; although I have been free to chide 
wherever I thought rebuke was merited; — yet, not- 
withstanding our government may have been guilty of 
tardiness in some respects, if you measure its speed by 
that of a monarchy, it has been marvellous, and almost 
beyond parallel. If it is measured by our own ideal of 
what a republican government is competent to do, if it 
is criticised by the test of its own capacity, then I 
blame it. But if it is criticised and measured by any 
other government, I say that there has never been a 
government since the w^orld began whose stability and 

17 Y 



386 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

power not only, but whose speed in bringing its vast 
resources to bear upon a given object, has equalled 
tliat of the republican government of America. 
Where have you ever found a government that was 
made up so completely as this has been of tlie people 
tliemselves ? 

In that great pine-tree that stands on the topmost 
point of the mountain ; that defies the seasons ; that 
sings its harsh and weird melody through all the 
blasts of winter and all the storms of summer ; and 
that, the year round, holds out its branches undepop- 
ulated and ever green, — in that tree there is not one 
single fibre, from the root to the highest twig, that 
does not go to make up the tree, and that does not 
minister to the strength by which it resists the tem- 
pests of summer and winter. 

And so, in this government, tliere is not one single 
man who is not a fibre to make it stiff in trunk 
and strong in branch. And it is the vital connection 
among the whole of the people, as represented in the 
States and in the nation, that gives to this govern- 
ment a power such as no other government ever 
possessed. 

Where before were so many men ever rolled up so 
easily ? Where before was so large an army, so ut- 
terly ignorant of the use of arms and all military 
affairs, ever so quickly trained into valiant soldiers ? 
Where before were munitions of war ever so abun- 
dantly and speedily created ? Why, the foundry that 
yesterday knew only how to cast stoves, to-day knows 
how to cast fifteen-inch guns. The factory that yes- 
terday knew only how to make buttons, to-day knows 
how to make bombs. The stone that yesterday knew 



OUR GOOD PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS. 387 

ouly how to grind scythes for cutting grass and grain, 
to-day knows how to grind swords for fighting the reb- 
els. And many an enterprising establishment that has 
heretofore devoted its energies to producing the neces- 
sities of a community at peace, is now engaged in the 
production of the things that are required by a com- 
nmnity at war. And the vast resources of the nation 
have been developed with a suddenness and on a 
scale such as were never known to any monarchy. 
Napoleon, even in the palmy days of his grandeur, 
could not have raised and equipped such an army as 
this nation has raised and equipped, and done it so 
quickly as this nation has done it. And where before 
has there ever been a campaign like that which our 
government is carrying on ? The disastrous Russian 
campaign, perhaps, came somewhat near equalling it ; 
but that did not equal it. If you take into account 
the enormous length of the line of fire that stretches 
from Eastern Virginia to Western Missouri, and the 
extent of the naval warfare that reaches clear down 
to the Gulf, and along to the coast of Texas, there 
never has been such a campaign maintained so easily 
as that* which is being carried on by this democratic, 
republican government of America. 

Not only that : I call your attention to the nature 
of the people that are reared under a government 
and its institutions, as one of the evidences of the 
kind of government and institutions that rears them. 
I think that one of the tests of a people is their ca- 
pacity of taxation, and their willingness to be taxed. 
The capacity of this people for taxation is boundless. 

If I am rightly informed, when the engineers laid 
out the system of water-works that supplies Brooklyn, 



388 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

— and could supply New York if necessary, — tliey 
intended to bring the water from the several connect- 
ed ponds far back on the island ; but, in going out 
to these ponds, they found the surface-springs on the 
way so rich and numerous, that, before they had 
tapped their great reservoirs, they had all that would 
be needed for a year or two in the city. 

I think it is very much so with taxation among us. 
We have only touched the surface-s'prings. They do 
not go very deep ; and yet they supply the demand. 
Never was there a nation with such unbounded lib- 
erty, with such unlimited prosperity, and with such 
immense wealth that the government could avail 
itself of by taxation. And how patiently the people 
have submitted ! A few rebellious distillers there 
are, who would fain lift up their spirits against it ; 
but the great people are accepting taxation, not only 
with extraordmary patience, but with gladness. In 
this matter, the legislators were the cowards, and the 
people had to urge them to make the law deep, broad, 
and stringent enough. 

That is not all. A people may submit to taxation 
in patience, and yet not have faith in their rulers. 
The test of a people is in their readiness to trust their 
government. All Europe said, when the Trent affair 
had touched the pride and inflamed the feelings of 
our people, " There must be war in the Northern 
States ; the wild, fierce, ungovernable democracy 
there must rise against their rulers, if those rulers 
do anything but maintain the step that they have 
taken." The government, by its Secretary of State, 
simply said, " We are in the wrong, and we cheer- 
fully make reparation." The ship was given up, the 



OUR GOOD PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS. 389 

men were released from Fort Warren, and there was 
not the lisp of a murmur. This great people said, 
" If the rulers whom we have chosen think that that 
is right, we are satisfied ; so go down pride ! go down 
anger ! " — and they went down. 

And that is not all. The government, for more 
than a year, has been attempting to follow conserva- 
tive counsels. There are a great many men that 
hav-e all along been railing at the radicals. Had 
you not better w^ait till you have seen what rad- 
icals can do ? We have had a conservative policy, 
that would not, when the government property at 
Charleston and Pensacola was seized, do anything to 
recover it. We had a conservative President, who 
would not exert his authority and power to enforce 
the laws of the land, and who would not, though ad- 
vised to do it by conservative statesmen, take any 
efficient steps for the relief of the immortal Ander- 
son when he had taken possession of Fort Sumter. 
Conservative counsels prevailed then, and conserva- 
tive counsels have prevailed since. When the bom- 
bardment of Sumter forced something to be done, it 
was conservative counsel that said, " Call for only 
seventy-five thousand men." It was conservative 
coimsel that said, " Put sugar-plums into your guns, 
and with tliem put down the rebellion." We have 
had conservative generals ; and we have had a con- 
servative campaign,* made up of mud, death, and 
nothing ! And the great conservative wisdom which 
we have been obliged to follow has consisted in put- 
ting a snuffer over the President, and saying, " Let 
not your light shine ; it will disturb the spirits of 

* On the " Peninsula," 



890 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

darkness." But, at last, Mr. Lincoln has risen up 
and said, " Enough of such nonsense ! I declare 
that, if this rebellion does not get away with it- 
self before the first of January, the slaves shall bo 
free ! " And it was under the same impulse that 
led him to take that stand, — an impulse, I will not 
say from external influences, but I would rather feel, 
from the inspiration of God's providence, that is lead- 
ing him, without a doubt, in a way that he knows 
not of, — it was under that same impulse that, when 
the armies were paralyzed, Mr. Lincoln said, " Come 
down thou here ! " to the man to whom he had said, 
" Go up thou there." He came down, and the Presi- 
dent has put in authority men who are supposed to 
mean war, in making war ; and now the face of the 
whole army is as if it would go towards Jerusalem. 
And you may depend upon it that, at last, you will 
see something done by radical counsel. There are a 
few deriding papers and politicians that are complain- 
ing of radicalism ; but they are like the Jewish 
doctors who wanted to cure the man with the devil 
in him, by putting plasters on the outside. Christ 
said to the foul spirit, " Come out of him " ; and he 
rent him sore, and came out of him, and he fell down 
as one dead ; and when he got up, he had not a devil 
in him. We have put up, for seventeen long months, 
with the dilatoriness of conservatism, hoping that 
there was some mysterious plan which would at last 
be brought to light, and evolve something ; but the 
people have found out that there is no wisdom in 
conservatism, and that radicalism is what we want, — 
a radicalism which shall strike at the root of the evil, 
and so end the rebellion. And under this inspiration 
we have come upon a new era. 



OUR GOOD PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS. 391 

And I call you to notice that this great people, 
under all these discouraging and aggravating circum- 
stances, have borne patiently with their government 
and trusted their rulers. Where before was there 
ever a people wise enough, and patient enough, and 
self-governed enough, to do this ? And now, when 
Europe says, " Republicanism is at end," I say, God 
grant that it may always end by showing a people so 
patient, so courageous, so self-sacrificing, so trustful 
toward government, and so determined, through good 
report and through evil report, to maintain nation- 
ality on the basis of liberty. 

I will say but one word upon my next point. We 
have great occasion for thanksgiving, that the people 
have stood a moral test in the most remarkable man- 
ner. It is peculiarly gratifying to me, who have 
always believed in the essential, though latent, hero- 
ism of our Puritan stock, and of the whole loyal 
population, to see this heroism developed, in spite of 
the charge which has been made against us abroad, 
that we were a trafficking people, without heroism, 
and incompetent to act for an idea. We have, for 
two whole years, stood putting every material interest 
at jeopardy ; we have laid all our external prospects 
in the scale ; we have seen industry in our midst 
comparatively stopped ; and yet, up to this hour, we 
have said, " Come weal or come woe, let us fight this 
thing out for the sake of liberty and justice." And 
we have not turned back nor flmched. We have gone 
forward, and advanced further and further toward the 
idea of universal freedom on this continent. 

How has it been with England, — antislavery Eng- 
land ! Half a million of ladies in England, including 



392 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

every principal woman there, excepting the ilhistrious 
Queen, whose relation to the state forbade her doing 
it, signed a letter to Mrs. Stowe, beseeching that this 
country would take immediate action in reference to 
slavery, and do away this great and crying evil. 
And the English press has thundered and thundered 
at us, never ceasing to throw up in our face the re- 
proach that we wore the black scarf of slavery, and 
that oppression was a disgraceful blot upon our 
shield. And when the time of trial came, and, for 
the sake of liberty, we and England alike were called 
to stand and suffer, we, with every month, grew more 
and more antislavery, more and more disinterested, 
more and more heroic, and more and more deter- 
mined that we would never give up the central ideas 
of nationality and liberty, though we should suffer 
the loss of all things in our efforts to maintain them ; 
and England has apostatized. The public sentiment 
of England has rapidly become proslavery. What 
is the matter ? England, that has been so boa,stful 
of what she did in the West Indies, and that has 
prided herself so much on her antislavery principles, 
snapped in two the moment the test was brouglit to 
bear upon her, and went over to the Southern side. 
And her whole sympathy, with the exception of a few 
honorable men, — and may their numbers increase, 
and their influence grow strong as the attraction of 
the heavenly bodies, — her whole sympathy, with these 
exceptions, when her factories and ships, when her 
commerce and manufacturing, were touched, was 
transferred from antislavery to slavery ; and from 
that time she has stood forth as a proslavery nation. 
And this money-loving, slave-ridden, paltry, mean 



OUR GOOD PROGRESS AND PROSPECTS. 893 

Yankee nation, in the time of her trial, stood up in 
her Gethsemane, sweating great drops of blood, and 
said, '' Lord, if thou be willing, remove this cup from 
me ; nevertheless, not my will, but tliine, be done." 
I point to monarchy in no less an illustrious nation 
than Old England, and to republicanism in this coun- 
try, and say. Behold the two under the same tempta- 
tions, and see what a free government makes a people 
do, and what a monarchy lets them do. 

I cannot close this discourse without mentioning 
another, and to me very touching, reason of thanks- 
giving. For the last twenty-five years, the great bug- 
bear with which all agitation on the slavery question 
was sought to be repressed was, that, if any great 
movement should be made toward liberty, there was 
no cruelty, no rapine, no robbery, no crime too awful 
to be imagined, that would not be committed by the 
emancipated or rebellious slaves. And now I desire, 
in this house of God, and in the presence of his pray- 
ing people, to give thanks to him, that four millions 
of heathen — poor, despised, despoiled, much-suffer- 
ing, and long-outraged — have been put on the tan- 
talizing edge of emancipation, and held there for two 
years, where they could see their prayers for freedom 
almost answered, and that they have behaved them- 
selves so discreetly, so patiently, and so Christianly, 
that there can be neither in the North nor in the 
South any just cause of offence. And the strongest 
argument to-day why they should be emancipated is, 
that they deserve emancipation who behave them- 
selves so well. Where has there been one servile 
insurrection, or one atrocious murder, by the hand 
of slaves ? There have been thousands of murders 

17* 



[>94 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

by the hands of their masters, but none by theirs, 
though they have suffered the most aggravating 
wrongs. 

Greneral Mitchel told me tliat, when he held a hun- 
dred and fifty miles of the Tennessee River, he was 
enabled to do it because he had intelligent slaves in 
his employ who kept him advised of the movements 
of the enemy. As a reward for their fidelity, he 
gave his pledge of honor that they should not be re- 
turned to slavery ; but when he was called to another 
field, Buell gave them right back into the hands of 
their masters, — and the sufferings of many of them 
are over now ! Hundreds and thousands of atroci- 
ties, such as white flesh could not bear, have been 
practised upon these poor creatures ; and yet, where 
can you find a single instance in which they have 
shown tliemselves bloodthirsty or revengeful ? And 
is this fact no argument for thanksgiving ? It is to 
me, for our sakes, for their sakes, and for the sake of 
their masters ; for, though I am not second to any 
man in zeal to put down the rebellion, it is not be- 
cause I hate the white men of the South. They are 
my brethren yet. They are blood of my blood, and 
bone of my bone. Alienated they may be from me, 
but not I from them. Wrong they are, but what 
would become of us if wrong voided love and kind- 
ness ? Do we not live upon perpetual kindness 
toward sinners ? I remember the days that are gone, 
and I cast my imagination forward to days that are to 
come, when this poison that drives fever and insanity 
through the veins of the South shall be purged away, 
when slavery shall be exorcised, and when they shall 
sit clothed and in their rierht minds at the feet of Jesus. 



OUR GOOD PEOGRESS AND PROSPECTS. 895 

Do not you suppose that there will be times of joy and 
prosperity such as the sun never shone upon, when the 
undivided nation, cured of its mischief, shall, every 
Sabbath-day, lift itself up, and, in the voice of unnum- 
bered worshippers, praise God for liberty, for virtue, 
and for rehgion ? I hail the good conduct of tliese 
poor, dusky children as contributing to our prosper- 
ity, to theirs, and to that of their masters. 

My friends, it is hard, on one account, to preach on 
Tlianksgiving-day. I preach against attractions that 
increase with every delaying moment ; and I am 
warned, already, not to attempt to exliaust the topics 
that I have enumerated, lest, long before I could do 
that, I should exhaust your patience. Join with me, 
then, in thanksgiving. Now, reminded and stirred 
up, lay aside that sceptical inquiry, '' What have we 
to give thanks for to-day ? " For many things in the 
skies, for many things on the soil, for much in the 
government, for much in the army, for heroic exam- 
ples, for martyrs that must be illustrious as long as 
there is a written history in America, for good con- 
duct among the poor and the weak and among the 
rich and the strong, for the whole indication of 
God's providence toward our future nationality, let 
us give thanks to God, and let us join, as with one 
voice, in singing praise to God for all the kindness 
that he has shown us. We will sing '' America " ; 
and in order to get the key, let us take up a contribu- 
tion for the poor 1 



XYII. 



LIBERTY UNDER LAWS* 



" For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty: only use not liberty 
for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." — Gal. v. 13. 




T has been said, usually, that this and like 
passages were metaphorical, and signified 
simply spiritual liberty. They include that ; 
but they neither begm nor end with it. 
The Apostle is not discussing, either, the question 
of personal liberty. That is but an inference and 
special application of a larger right than even civil 
and political liberty, — a right that lies back of all 
society and all individual volition, and depends in 
nothing upon men's opinions or arrangements, but 
stands in the Divine arrangement, in the creative 
decree. 

What, then, is liberty, — the source or fountain 
of which all other liberties are but streams or defluc- 
tions ? 

There can be no such thing as absolute liberty, — 
that is, the liberty of acting according to our own 
wishes, without hindrance and without limitation ; 
for man is created to act by means of certain laws. 

* December 28, 1862, while the . Emancipatiou Proclamation was ex- 
pected. 



LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 397 

Above all creatures on earth, man is placed under 
many and exacting laws. He is surrovmded, he is 
walled in, he is domed and circuited by laws ; and 
every one of them is imperative. And it is the law 
of the animal creation, that, as you augment being, 
you augment law. For there is no power, there is no 
faculty, in man, that is not relative to some law which 
it represents outside of him. And all laws of matter 
external to his own self are imperative upon him. 
And there is no such thing as liberty, in the largest 
sense, in the physical world. You are at liberty to 
go where you please, provided you please to go where 
natural laws will let you ; but if a man, on the top of 
one mountain, pleases to walk through the air to the 
next one, can he ? He is at liberty to try ; but he 
will fall over the precipice below if he undertakes it. 
Has a man liberty to do as he pleases ? Let him walk 
on water. He has no such liberty. Our liberty is 
hedged in by natural law. There is no step that you 
can take without asking permission of laws, — and 
how many there are of them ! How many of them 
touch us at every point ! I am a focal centre ; and 
laws of light, laws of electricity, laws of gravitation, 
and social laws are running in on me perpetually, 
from every direction ; and I am the creature of them 
all, and I am obliged to submit to them all. I can- 
not help myself. And there is no such thing as real 
and absolute liberty in this regard. 

All laws of our physical body, of every organ of 
that body, must be observed. Thus, the eye has its 
law ; and a man has liberty of sight only through 
obedience to that law. The ear has its law ; the 
tongue has its law ; the heart has its law ; the lungs 



398 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

have their law. There is a law that belongs to each 
particular function of the physical organization. And 
there is no liberty in a man except in obedience to 
those laws. Every faculty of the mind is a definite 
power, moving within fixed limits toward ends that 
cannot be varied. Thus, you cannot feel with the 
faculty that is made for thinking, and you cannot 
think with the faculty that is made for feeling, any 
more than you can digest food with the lungs, and 
breathe with the stomach. You cannot transpose 
functions from one faculty to another. You have 
received your mind, with its faculties, each of which 
has its inward law, impressed upon it of God ; and 
the liberty that you have is a liberty which is obliged 
to take into account, not only the laws of the physi- 
cal world, but also the laws of your body, and of 
all the faculties of your body. And the laws of so- 
ciety itself, as well as the laws developed through 
experience, are as binding and imperative as the 
laws of nature, expressed in the material world, or 
in us. No creature is so harnessed by imperative 
and absolute laws as man ; and therefore, than tliis 
vague but popular idea that liberty means doing just 
what you please, nothing can be further from the 
truth. No creature that God made on the earth has 
so. little liberty to do what he pleases as man. You 
cannot use your arm except according to its muscles. 
You cannot use your foot except according to its 
organization. You cannot vise any organ of the body 
except within the circuit of its appointed natural law. 
You cannot use the mind nor the affections except 
according to their own laws. There is no liberty 
except inside of certain boundaries. 



LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 399 

The only liberty, then, that a man has, is the 
liberty to use himself, in all his powers, according 
to the laws which God has imposed on those pow- 
ers. The only liberty in this world' is the liberty to 
be unhindered in obeying natural laws. Our direc- 
tions, our tendencies, and therefore our duties, are 
all expressed in the laws that God has made ; and 
when we come to those laws we are bound to obey 
them ; and if anybody hinders us, then our liberties 
begin. As toward God, liberty means obedience to 
laws ; and it is only when we are disputed in the 
right of this obedience by men, that we begin to get 
an idea of liberty. We have a right to obey God, 
whether he speaks on Sinai, or in muscle or bone or 
faculty, or any other way. It is our liberty to unfold 
natural laws, and to follow them. 

This may seem but a very narrow possession. It is 
so only in words, not in reality. It seems as though 
a man were shut up when you say that he can do 
nothing but obey a fixed natural law. The first 
thought suggested by the statement is that the liberty 
just to obey a law is a liberty so restricted as to be 
almost no liberty at all. That depends upon what 
the law includes. Take an example or two. You 
can do nothing in vision except what the laws of 
vision allow you to do ; but how much there is that 
can be done in obedience to those laws. In a whole 
lifetime you cannot see all that there is to be seen. 
You must, if you use your ear, do it according to the 
acoustic law ; and yet, in obeying that law, what a 
liberty is opened up ! A man would need to be far 
older than Methuselah to exhaust sound in all its 
varieties and combinations. 



400 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

This, then, is the sovereignty of man. It is the 
doctrine of the individual upon a Christian basis. It 
is the right of every man over his own mind, heart, 
and body ; over his time, movements, and relations to 
the physical world. It is the sovereignty of every 
man over himself. It is his right to have and hold 
and use himself according to the laws that God made. 
That is his liberty ; and if any one attempts to take 
it away from him, he attempts to deprive him of so 
much of his liberty. If he does not know how to 
use himself thus, he loses by his ignorance so much 
of his liberty. 

This sovereignty has seldom been exercised by, 
or even revealed to, the mass of men in the world. 
Man has been rigidly hindered and hampered by civil 
and secular impositions as to his body. Men have 
not been allowed to exercise their natural physical 
capacities according to the law of their own develop- 
ment. It has been in this respect as it was in Egypt 
in respect to business. It was ordained what calling 
a man should follow. If he was born of a priest, he 
had a right only to be a priest. If he was born of a 
mechanic, he was bound to be a mechanic. He could 
not elect, according to the formal law of adaptation, 
what pursuit he would engage in, where he would go, 
or what he would be. Laws have divided men, cut 
them up into classes, and set apart to some much, to 
others less, to others still less, and to others almost 
nothing except the crumbs that fall from the table 
of the more favored. And it is no small thing to say 
to every human being on the earth, " God gave you 
the right to develop your body, and all that pertains 
to it, according to the law that is in you, and not 



LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 401 

according to the law that happens to be in the civil 
society where you are." 

You have that liberty. Do not you like the prac- 
tice of law ? You can preach, if you please, and if 
you are competent. Do not you like the pulpit ? 
Nothing hinders you from turning to the store. Are 
you a turner ? and do you find that you are thrown 
into a business that does not suit you ? Go to the 
forge, if you like. Nobody stands in the way of your 
doing it. Are you at the forge ? and do you say, " I 
am better adapted for a seaman " ? Then why do 
you not go on the deck ? Are you on the deck ? and 
do you say, " Farming is that to which I am best 
suited " ? Then there is no authority or custom to 
prevent you from going on a farm. Do you say, " I 
am too far north " ? Then go to the tropics : they are 
free to you. Or if you say, " I am too near the 
equatorial zone of unhealth," then it is your privi- 
lege to go to the frigid zone, if you choose. 

It seems a small thing to say that a man has a right 
to develop his bodily life according to the laws of the 
body ; but that declaration in Georgia or Alabama 
would work a revolution in less than twenty-four 
hours. There are some four millions of men that, if 
you should say to them, "You have a right to develop 
your body according to natural law," would inaugu- 
rate a servile revolution in a moment. For we are in 
such an exquisite state in this country, that to fall 
back on Divine law and original equity is to over- 
throw civil law. And yet against civil law, and by 
the authority of the Gospel, I declare to every man 
that lives on the face of the earth, " You are called to 
liberty." And as long as the Bible is held in the 



402 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

hands, not of priests, bvit of freemen, just so long it 
will be interpreted so as to sound a trumpet-call to 
every living man on earth, saying : " You have a right 
to go wherever the laws of your being permit you to 
go, and to do whatever those laws permit you to do." 
If a man is born black as midnight, — if his face is as 
if all the stars of darkness had kissed him, — still, if he 
is born with the tongue of an orator, he has God's 
permission and God's ordination to be an orator ; and 
nobody has a right to say to him, '' You shall not." 
If a man has an artificer's skill in his hand, he has a 
right to cut and carve, whether it be machinery or 
statue or what not ; and nobody has a right to say to 
him, " You shall not follow out the law that is infixed 
in your organization and your constitution." And 
this is what I consider to be the most atrocious thing 
in that most atrocious, heaven-abhorred and hell-be- 
loved system of slavery. What ? that it gives a man 
coarse clothes ? John wore camel's hair and a leathern 
girdle, and he was well enough off. Is it because it 
gives a man coarse food ? Thousands of you would be 
better off if you ate coarse food.^ Is it because in its 
workings men are under-fed or under-clothed ? Or, are 
they happy because they are over-clothed and over-fed ? 
Why, my pigs are happy, that have the liberty to 
grunt as much as they please, that have all they want 
to eat, and that have plenty of straw to lie on. And 
men defend slavery on the ground that the black men 
of the South are well fed and clothed, and are appar- 
ently happy in their condition ; but the fact that they 
have enough to eat and to wear, and that they can 
sing, is no evidence that they have all the rights of 
their manhood. I say that they have a right to listen 



LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 403 

to the voice of God in their faculties and organization, 
and to follow out the laws that God has wrought in 
them. And that we have four milhons of men before 
whom we stand in all the majesty of local and national 
law, and say: " Yovi shall not come up into yourself; 
you shall not have the liberty to be what God made 
you able to be ; you shall not be free to obey the laws 
of your being," — this is to go at right angles to Di- 
vine decrees ; it is to contravene God's creative idea. 

Man has been robbed, likewise, of his mind, — that 
is, of his education. An uneducated mind is like un- 
dug ore. Iron on my farm is nothing. When I have 
dug it out, and smelted it, and purified it, and when 
it has been made into a sword, into knives, into uten- 
sils or machinery of any sort, then the mineral has 
been educated. Now a man is nothing but a mine of 
imdug faculties. The first step in education consists 
in digging them out in the rough, preparatory to 
bringing them to their perfect form. When a man is 
first born, he is like an acorn. But in an acorn — 
that is, in its possible future — there is timber. In a 
bushel of acorns tljere are ships, there are dwellings, 
there are curiously carved cornices and statues. And 
when men are born, they are born into philosophers, 
into statesmen, into orators, into patriots, into wise 
men, — provided that, being born, they are planted, 
and developed, and given an opportunity to grow to 
that which God thought of wlien he created them. 
But the belief of the human race has been that the 
man who knew much was a very dangerous creature. 
The heresy of five thousand years out of six, and of 
five hundred more, and of a hundred more besides, 
has been that knowledge was dangerous for the com- 
mon people. 



404 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

There are walking-sticks that are made for seats as 
well as walking-sticks. When they are shut up, they 
are like walking-sticks, and they cannot stand of them- 
selves ; but if you open them, there sprout out legs, 
that enable them not only to stand, but to support a 
man's weight. An uneducated man is like an un- 
opened walking-stick of this kind. He cannot stand 
alone. He needs to lean on some king or government. 
It is not until he has been taken and educated and 
expanded that he can hold himself up. And it is this 
idea of developing that which God has put in every 
man, so that he can stand alone, that is the foundation 
of self-government, — the only divine government in 
this world. There are in each individual man all the 
faculties that are necessary, if they are balanced and 
co-ordinated, to make him a perfect being in his social 
organization ; and education means merely the open- 
ing up of a man, and giving him all his legs to stand 
on, and all his hands to help himself with. Those 
who govern men, and who maintain themselves by 
governing men, want men to need some one to lean 
on, and to take care of them ; ai\^d therefore they do 
not want them opened up. Just that which they do 
not like is to have every man capable of standing of 
himself; for their interest demands a state of things 
in which one head shall think for a million heads, and 
one hand shall rule for a million hands. And it has 
been, since time began, the heresy that education was 
to be feared. Priests have been afraid, and prime 
ministers and princes and kings have been afraid, of 
education. And yet to every man belongs the liberty 
of having the fullest development of all that God put 
into the making of the human mind. We are called 



LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 405 

to liberty. It is a part of the design of that system 
which lies under the foundations of society, that every 
man has a right to the full use of every faculty of his 
mind according to the law that God established in that 
faculty. 

But man has been yet worse robbed in soul than 
even in body and mind. He has had presented to 
him false gods of every kind for his worship. And 
by the most rigorous despotism and the most fearful 
threatenings, he has been forbidden to find his own 
way to God, and compelled to accept the gods that 
were fashioned for him. And when the true God has 
been revealed at length, after many generations, the 
way to the true God has been hedged up, and worship 
and obedience have been prescribed, and men have 
had no liberty of going their own way, but have been 
obliged to walk the priests' and the church's way. 
And man's whole ethical life has been framed and 
imposed upon him without his consent, and without 
appeal from it. And although much of the religion 
and ethics that has been taught has belonged to the 
true system, much of it has not. And nowhere else 
has man been so trained to be a coward as in main- 
taining his right to fashion his own ethical life, to 
worship and to find God in his own way ; while no- 
where else has sounded out so loudly the sweet voice 
of the Gospel, saying, " Ye are called unto liberty." 

I think men in this world, for the most part, have 
been much like orphans, to whom has been bequeathed 
a large estate, but whose fraudulent executor or guar- 
dian has kept them ignorant of their parents, their 
possessions, and their rights, and bound them out in 
every direction to ignominious callings.- God's great 



406 FREEDOM AND WAE. 

brood of orphan children have been m the hands 
of the Devil as their executor ; and he has kept 
them from knowing anything about their Father, of 
their inheritance, or of the liberty that belongs to 
them. And the Gospel has come in to rip up the old 
settlement, expose the fraud, and bring the orphans 
back to their property and privileges again. And the 
voice of our text, the voice of the providence of God, 
to-day, is, " Ye are called to liberty." 

Let us, then, see how this call of the Gospel acts. 
Christ brought liberty to men. That is, m the first 
instance, he established his true place in creation as a 
child of God ; he told him what he was, and he treat- 
ed him as if he was such. While the humiliation of 
Christ, — not merely his being born in the likeness of 
a man, but his selecting for his parentage the lowest 
class in society, and his being born under circumstan- 
ces indicative of the most impoverished condition, — 
while this certainly illustrates the design of God, and 
was meant to, and to do still more that is left out of 
sight, it determines man's place in creation. Christ 
came into the world among men that had no adven- 
titious value. There was not, of those with whom he 
mingled during the first ten years of his earthly life, 
a man that could be proud on account of his clothes, 
his grounds, his house, his privileges, his honors, or 
his titles. Christ was born in the midst of men, and 
he lived for thirty years among men, that had abso- 
lutely nothing but their own individual selves. He 
associated with men, not because they were wise, 
educated, large men, not because they were privileged 
or titled men, but simply because they were men. 
For he wished- to teach us that the lowest man on 



LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 40T 

earth is a child of God. Aiid if this is true of the 
lowest, how much more eminently is it true of every- 
thing higher than the lowest ! He began at the bot- 
tom of life, and stuck close to the bottom of life, 
where there was simply man, and nothing else. And 
he bore witness by every word that he spoke, and by 
every deed that he performed, that man, low, base, 
undeveloped, least and lowest, is yet God's child. He 
is a child of eternity. He came hither from thence, 
and he goes thither again. He was God-wrought, 
and he feels a yearning for his parentage, and seeks 
again the source from which he came. And he can- 
not be measured by anything in this world. No lati- 
tudes drawn from the earth's surface can gird a man, 
and no longitudes can belt him. Take the lines of 
infinity, and measure him with them ; take God's 
dwelling-place, and measure him by its instruments ; 
measvire him by nothing else but these. Take the 
meanest, the most imbruted creature ; take the black- 
est slave that, overworked and outworked, is kicked 
out to die under the frosty hedge, and whose bones 
even the crows do not wait to pick, and there is not 
a star that nightly blazes in the heavens, and speaks 
of God, that shall not burn to the socket, and go out, 
before the spirit in that poor, low, miserable, brutish 
thing shall cease to flame up bright as God's own 
crown. The poorest creature, the lowest creature, 
the meanest creature, is immortal, is an eternal heir 
of God, and bears a spark of divinity within him. 
This revelation of what a man is, in and of his own 
nature, without any regard to his circumstances, is 
the key-note of civilization, and the key-note of the 
liberties of states and of communities that shall be 
permanent and normal and philosophical. 



408 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

It is no small thing for a man to know that. Why, 
a slave that knows it and sings it, a slave that 
dreams of heaven and chants of Christ, is richer than 
is the richest master that has no God but the Devil, 
and stands higher in the sight of angels than he. For 
as angels come with God's blessings down to men, 
methinks they fly but a little way before they reach 
the spirits of some of those sainted old slaves, and 
that then they descend 

*' Nine times the space that measures day and night 
To mortal men," 

and at last come to the master. And the difference 
lies in the simple fact that the former have in them 
Christ, the hope of glory. And the man who has 
that has done his march, and is ready to enter 
into his rest, and to ascend the throne which he has 
inherited. 

You know the story of Williams, the missionary 
among the Indians, who, it was supposed, was a kid- 
napped Bourbon, sent off by some usurper of the 
throne, and who afterwards found out that he was of 
the stock of royalty, and spent part of his life in 
trying to collate the facts and make the chain of evi- 
dence complete that he was descended from the loins 
of kings, and was the rightful heir to the throne of 
France. It was not so, I suppose ; but suppose it 
had been so, think how, when the idea dawned upon 
him in his forest travels ; how, when he came to take 
fact after fact, and put them together, and prove that 
he was of royal blood, and a monarch entitled to all 
the treasures of the empire, how he must have felt 
a heart-swell, though he might have deemed it best 
to continue a missionary ! I know not how it would 



LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 409 

have been with him, but I know how it would have 
been with me. If I had learned that I was bom to 
human titles, and to all those regalities, and if I had 
chosen to be a missionary, I would have been a royal 
missionary, and I would have given the people among 
whom I moved to understand that a king stooped 
when I stooped. 

Now Christ comes and whispers in the ears of men, 
saying : " You are an exiled child of royalty ; you are 
an heir, through Jesus Christ, to an eternal inheri- 
tance, and thrones and dominions and crowns are 
yours." He says it to the poorest, the meanest, and 
the lowest, and fixes a man in the knowledge of his 
Father, his titles, his dignity, and his destiny. And 
what a liberty is there ! 

Christ restores and enforces the right of a man to 
use all his nature according to the law which God has 
fixed in every part of that nature, without hindrance 
from without. He does this by his Gospel ; and I am 
entitled to preach that Gospel. But suppose I under- 
take to preach the Gospel in Georgia, in full, — not 
the letter which kills, but the spirit which makes alive ? 
Men want me to do it. I am frequently asked why I 
do not do it. They exhort me, with a fidelity and a 
pathos that do not fail to touch me, to preach the Gos- 
pel ! And I have made up my mind that I will. And 
to-day I begin by declaring, in the words of this passage, 
" Ye have been called unto liberty ^ Hear it, every Cal- 
muck, every Tartar, every Chinaman, every Japanese, 
every Italian, every Austrian, every Russian serf, every 
Frenchman ; hear it, among the mountain fastnesses 
of Norway and Sweden, through England, and along 
the German coast ; hear it in the islands of the sea ; 

18 



410 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

hear it, ye denizens of the forests of America ; hear it, 
ye slaves on every plantation throughout the bounds 
of the land ; everywhere, in all the earth, hear the 
Gospel, — "Ye have been called unto liberty!" 
And if you ask me, " What is that liberty ? " I de- 
clare that it is the right of every man who is born into 
this world to use every power, every faculty of his be- 
ing, according to the law th.at God has fixed in that 
power and in that faculty, and not according to any 
external imposition of man. This is the liberty to 
which you are called. And do you want me to preach 
the Gospel any more ? [Voices : Amen ! Amen !] 
'' And let all the people say. Amen." The time is 
coming when these truths of Christ shall flame out, 
and when men shall understand that preaching the 
Gospel does not mean preaching genuflexions and 
days and ordinances and abstract doctrines, and that 
there is a truth of the Gospel that carries emancipa- 
tion through and through, right to the soul, right to 
the heart, and that makes every man that lives on the 
globe a son of God, and therefore impossible to be a 
slave. 

But, more in detail, Christ has given to every one 
of us liberty of thought and liberty of belief. It is not 
irresponsible liberty of thought that we are called to. 
We have no liberty of thinking that disdains the laws 
of thinking. There is no liberty that does not involve 
the observance of law. Nevertheless, you have, every 
man has, as much right as I have to read God's Word, 
to think what truths are in that Word, and to use 
every part of the mind in reasoning upon those truths. 
Sometimes men say that faith requires us to lay aside 
our reason. I beg your pardon, it never does. I will 



LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 411 

tell you what I think about faith and reason. It is 
about these as it is about birds that both run and fly. 
A turkey that runs around in the woods never rises 
suddenly. It first runs on the ground till it gains suf- 
ficient momentum to enable it to rise and fly. Now I 
think that reason is like legs that run on the ground ; 
and as soon as you have come to the end of the earth, 
if you need more, and you have faith, lift your wings, 
and you can fly. But one follows the other. Faith 
never can be said to be coincident with reason. Rea- 
son is that faculty which knows things so far as they 
can be known ; and up to the point to which they can 
be found out, you are free to use it ; and, when you 
get to the end of knowing, if you have faith, then fly. 
All beyond is the region of faith. Faith is that which 
takes cognizance of things that are not within the sphere 
of knowing. And a part of Christian liberty is the right 
of free thinking and free believing. 

If there are infidels here that have been accustomed 
to carp at rehgion, and that say that they have a right 
of free investigation, I beg to inform them that they 
have not that right any more than every Christian has 
it. You have the liberty to think : we have the lib- 
erty to think. We are responsible for the laws of 
thought : you are responsible for the laws of thought. 
We all stand on one ground in that regard. And as 
far as the liberty of believing is concerned, we all have 
that. You may frame a doctrine different from mine, 
and you have a right to your doctrine, and I have a 
right to mine. You have a right to use your liberty 
of believing, though I do not always respect the way 
in which men use their liberty of believing. Yoti 
have a right to investigate, to think, to believe, and to 



412 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

frame doctrines ; but you are bound to do these things 
according to certain laws of investigation, of thought, 
of behef, and of doctrine, tliat have been unfolded and 
established. 

A word more, perhaps, is required respecting this 
declaration that you have a right to use every part of 
your mind. There are old castles and old mansions 
that have some rooms that the children are not allowed 
to go into. They are haunted rooms. Tlie children 
have lived ten or fifteen years without ever having 
entered those rooms, except, perhaps, occasionally at 
broad noonday. They would not go into them at night 
for all the world, because they are haunted. 

Now the mind has haunted rooms ; and on Sunday 
I reason in this place, with my causality, my compar- 
ison, my analogical powers, without disturbing any- 
body ; but the moment that, in reasoning, I with 
mirth drive right toward a great truth, filled full of 
benignity toward men, and reverence toward God, 
men hear sounds proceeding from those rooms. If I 
am largely endowed with the organ of mirthfulness, 
what did God put it into me for but that it might be 
a help to me in reasoning ? But the moment I begin 
to use it, men look toward the haunted rooms, and 
say, " I positively heard sounds that seemed like 
laughter " ; and they begin to exclaim against the 
desecration of the Sabbath ! 

Now, I declare the liberty of God's people to use 
every faculty of their mind on Sunday as well as on 
week-days. A man has as much right to smile on 
Sunday as on Monday. He has as much right to 
laugh, if he has a good reason for laughing, in the 
church as out of it. It is foolish to laus-h in either 



LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 413 

place without a good reason ; and if you liave a good 
reason, it is foolish not to laugh ! It is every person's 
liberty to use every faculty that God put into his mind 
according to its laws, for a good purpose. 

The like is true in respect to imagination. Be- 
cause this has been employed so much in the service 
of sin, men think that it is not fit to be employed in 
the service of God. But if it has been perverted, we 
must consecrate it, and lift it up to higher uses. And 
how blessed is that liberty from God to tlie human 
mind of using every one of the faculties according to 
the law that is in it ! 

There is also the liberty of worship which Christ 
lias restored to us ; and that is absolute. Why, you 
may be a Quaker ; God is willing, and I am willing, 
if you are. Do not you want to be one ? Well, you 
may be a Presbyterian, if your conscience wants it, 
and your heart wants it ; I am wiUing, and God is 
willing. Do not yeu like it ? Then you may be a 
Methodist. If you do not like that, you may be a 
Baptist. If you do not like that, you may come here 
and be all together. If you do not want any of these 
nor all of them, what do you want ? You are at 
liberty to choose the denomination that suits you best. 

When you are grown to manhood, and when, con- 
scious of the purity of your intent, when, full of honor 
— when, revering moral sentiment as if it were a 
religion, you at last find one that is to be your com- 
panion for life, and when, drawing near, your heart 
would speak to her, who shall give a liturgy or ritual 
in which to utter the words of love ? Who shall 
prescribe to you the mode of expressing devotion ? 
Your soul finds its own channel, and employs its own 



414 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

words ; and no man may step between you and her 
whom you love to say, " Speak thus, and only thus." 

And if it be so when we meet our mere companions 
and equals, how much more is this royalty of liberty 
when the soul goes rolling back toward God, and 
would fain express its sense of love and gratitude in 
the presence of divine realities ! Who shall tell the 
soul how to speak to God ? Who shall tell my child 
how to come and throw its arms about me ? What ty- 
rannic schoolmaster shall stand in the door when my 
daughter would rush to me after a long separation, 
with sobs and silence to say, " I love " ; or with 
laughter and glee to say, " I love " ; or with words 
well-measured and outpoured to say, " I love " ? The 
soul asks no interpreter ; it is its own interpreter ; 
and no man may stand in its way and say to God 
what it wants to say. This would be an intrusion. 
If men ask your help in matters of this kind, you 
may give it ; but your help musi not be their tyrant. 

There is also in this same gift of religion the lib- 
erty of beauty and of taste. A great many persons 
have felt that it was wicked for a Christian to dress 
beautifully. Do not misunderstand me. You have 
a right to use your rights and liberties as you please, 
when you please to subordinate them to others' bene- 
fits. Then it is perfectly right. And if, in accord- 
ance with this condition, a man in his own judgment 
says, " I do love beauty, and I will have it in my 
dwelling and on my person," in the name of the Lord 
Jesus Christ I rebuke those who pronounce it to be 
wicked, and I say to them, " Get thee behind mo, 
Satan ; thou art an offence unto me ; for thou savorest 
not of the things that be of God." There is a royal 



LIBERTY ItNDER LAWS. 415 

liberty of all to follow every faculty in their mind 
according to the law that God put into that faculty, 
and not according to the law of society or of public 
sentiment. Of course there are many ethical ques- 
tions of how far or how much ; and these are legiti- 
mate questions ; but that persons may enjoy beauty, 
robe themselves in it, surround themselves by it, and 
adorn their houses with it, I maintain. Though every 
man, in his own place and circumstances, must deter- 
mine how much of that liberty he shall dispense with 
or retain for the sake of others, the liberty is there ; 
and no man can call you to account for it. And not 
only are men to allow you to enjoy that liberty, but 
they are bound to respect your employment of it, 
and they have no right to point to you and say, " He 
is a Christian, and yet he dresses in those jewels and 
feathers and trappings." It is because you are a 
Christian that you have a right, if you can afford it, 
to dress in silks and satins and diamonds. A man 
has a right to do what he pleases in this regard, sub- 
ject to God, and not to you, little godling. 

The time is coming when men must learn this. 
The first lesson of Christianity was a lesson of self- 
denial. Heretofore men have been obliged to learn 
how to live in abnegation. But the world is not al- 
ways going to be in a state in which this will be 
necessary. The day is rapidly coming when intelli- 
gence, art, and abundance will everywhere exist. 
And men must learn how to be rich, and be Chris- 
tians too. They must learn how to be the admirers 
and creators and dispensers of beauty, and yet be 
Christians. And although there is a royal sphere of 
Christian life in self-denial which we never shall be 



416 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

done with, in one place and another, —7 thougli there 
will be abnegation in every Christian life, — yet intelli- 
gence and art and abundance will belong to Christian 
life, and men must learn to be Christians m these 
things. And when a man says to me, '' I cannot 
understand how it is that you, being a Christian, 
possess yourself of so many things that are beautiful, 
and merely beautiful, while around about you is a 
world lying in wickedness," I reply that it is because 
I choose to raise up a higher idea for men to aim at 
in social life. If the notions of some men were car- 
ried out on this subject, we should dress, as John did, 
in camel's hair, and live in wildernesses and caves, 
and have insects for food. 

And that which is true of beauty and taste is also 
true of art, of music, of wealth, and of the occupa- 
tions and pursuits of life. 

But mark, that this is not the liberty of doing just 
as a man pleases as between himself and God. It is 
just the contrary. Every man, as between himself 
and God, is bound to do the things that are indicated 
by the law that he has received in himself, and out- 
side of himself. But as respects your fellow-men 
around about you, it is your liberty, so far as they 
interfere with you, and attempt to hinder you, to 
carry out the law of God as it has been manifested 
to you, to the fullest extent. 

It is this obedience to law that makes such liberty 
safe, and gives society such benefits from it. If it 
was a liberty that gave a man the right to do any- 
thing that he pleased, it might be dangerous. It 
would then be what is called licentiousness in the 
Bible. But where it consists in the right of a man 



LIBERTY UNDER LAWS. 417 

to follow out divine laws as they are written in 
liim, then the more broad that liberty is, the more 
perfectly regulated and ordered and safe will the 
man's life be. A little liberty in men may be danger- 
ous. Then give them more. It is said that a little 
learning is dangerous. Yes, a little learning is ; but 
a little intelligence is not. There is a great diiference 
between intelligence and learning. A little intelli- 
gence is safe ; a little more is safer yet ; a little more 
is still safer ; and the more a man has of it the better 
he is. For intelligence does not consist in the facts 
that a man knows. It consists in the power of know- 
ing. It is the educated faculty in man. And so it is 
in respect to liberty. Liberty is meant for man, and 
man is meant for liberty ; and the more you can 
make him understand the law of God that is in him, 
the more you can drive him up to a full obedience 
to, and to a complete use of, the law that is written 
in him, the more safe he will be. A man will be a 
better father, a better husband, a better brother, a 
better neighbor, a better citizen, and a better Chris- 
tian, the more liberty he has. Liberty is the breath 
of tiie soul. It is that by which God meant that we 
should live. Men live just in proportion as they are 
free ; and they come short of true living just in pro- 
portion as they are cramped and confined and im- 
prisoned. And how few there are that live, in the 
large sense of the term ! Nevertheless, we are called 
to the royal gift of liberty in Jesus Christ. 

But remember that there is something more. " Only 
use not liberty for an occason to the flesh." Do not 
think that this liberty is for your own profit and ben- 
efit. Do not be stingy because you have the riches 

18# AA 



418 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

of liberty; "but by love serve one another," — be- 
come slaves to each other. By compulsion, no man 
should be a slave ; but without compulsion, and under 
the drawings of love, every man should be. Do you 
want to see a slave ? Do not go down to those para- 
disiacal lying places in the So nth, to see the happy 
slave. I will point you to one. 

The day is drawing to a close. Through all the 
hours of it a slave has been moving about the house ; 
and now, as twilight comes on, hear the slave singing 
a hymn. And what is it that this angelic choir is 
singing to ? It is a little nothing, called a baby. And 
who is this slave, fit to be an angel in royalty of gifts, 
and in richness of cultivation ? Why, it is Mrs. 
Browning, the poetess, noble in understanding, versed 
in the lore of ages, deep in nature, full of treasure 
such as no king, no court, and no palace ever had. 
She sings. And when the little child is uneasy she 
serves it. When the child tires of the pillow and the 
cradle, it makes a pillow of her. And when she is 
weary, if the child does not wish to go, she still holds 
it. And when at last it will lie down, she still wakes 
for fear that the child will awake. And in every single 
hour of the night she hears its call. Not a whimper 
or sound from the child escapes her notice. And she 
is up before the morning star. And, though weary, 
all day again this slave serves this little baby, — this 
little uncrowned despot of the heart ! 

Ah ! there is no slave out of heaven like a loving 
woman ; and of all loving women there is no such 
slave as a mother. And how royal, next to God him- 
self, are slaves ! But remember what kind they must 
be. " By love serve one another." That is the coin 



LIBEETY UNDER LAWS. 419 

that buys them. It is love, and it is giving one's self 
for another's benefit and to another's life in the ful- 
ness of love, that makes true slavery. How beautiful 
are those slaves that are slaves through love ! Not 
the Greek Slave could be compared with them. No 
ideal that we can form can approach to the glory of 
tlieir nature. No measure can be found by which to 
estimate the value of one that is a slave through love 
to another's uses. 

It is a serious responsibility that goes with liberty ; 
if you have it, you must use it in the fear of God for 
the good of others as well as for your own good. 

May God give us liberty, all of us, in Jesus Christ, 
and may he teach us to use that liberty as Christ him- 
self used it, " who, being in the form of God, thought 
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself 
of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a 
servant, and was made in the likeness of men ; and, 
being found in fashion as a man, humbled himself, and 
became obedient unto death, even the death of the 
cross." And then may God highly exalt us as he ex- 
alted him, and give us, as he gave him, a name which 
is above every name, because our liberty has been used 
for others, and not for ourselves alone. 



XVIII 



THE SOUTHERN BABYLON* 

" And after these things I saw another angel come down from heaven, 
having great power; and the earth was Hghtened with his glory. And he 
cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is 
fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul 
spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have 
drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the 
earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth 
are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard 
another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be 
not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her 
sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities. 
Reward her even as she rewarded you, and double unto her double accoi'd- 
ing to her works: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double. How 
much she hath glorified herself, and lived deliciously, so much torment 
and sorrow give her; for she saith in her heart, I sit a queen, and am no 
widow, and shall see no sorrow. Therefore shall her plagues come in one 
day, death and mourning and famine; and she shall be utterly burned 
with fire: for strong is the Lord God whojudgeth her." — Eev. xviii. 
1-8. 




HE Book of Revelation is not to be studied 
as we study a star in the system of astron- 
omy, with exact and mathematical calcula- 
tion, but as we gaze upon a light or beacon 
set to teach us the general direction in which we 
are to lay our course. It is an illumination whicli 
God has lit up in the later days of the world to fill us 



January 4, 1863, the first Sabbath of the new y< 



THE SOUTHERN BABYLON. 421 

in times of despondency with courage and cheer and 
hope. 

The term Babylon, borrowed from a real city, is 
employed here, as in other places, often figuratively. 
And without straining a point at all, it may be said 
that it is the kingdom of despotism, the kingdom of 
oppression, on earth, that is meant by the term Babij- 
lon. It is more specific than the term kingdom of 
darkness ; for it seems to refer to a speciality of des- 
potism. The violation of the eternal principles of 
justice for the injury and destruction of men, — this 
seems to be that which is grouped and included under 
that term Babylon. Nay, it is even more full and 
specific than that. It is the violation of human rights 
by the despotic selfishness of commerce that is included 
in and intended by the term Babylon. For although 
it was not the genius of the Hebrew mind to generalize 
philosophically as we do, to state a general truth in 
generic terms ; and though accordingly there is no 
specific statement to this effect, yet, if you take the 
' particulars that go to make up the declaration here 
respecting Babylon, you shall find that it is so. A 
great community, banded, fed, prospered, and made 
rich, through commerce, by unlawful means, involving 
tlie waste and the destruction of the rights, the purity, 
and the lives of the poor and of the needy, — such a 
community is a Babylon. 

If you ask, then, " What is this Babylon ? " it is 
the symbol of the injustice and the oppression prac- 
tised by the commerce of the world. The spirit of 
modern times is commercial. Commerce is a great 
d'ivme instrumentality in civilizhig and Christianizing 
the world. Comprehensively regarded, it may be said 



422 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

to be a Christian agency. As a general tendency, it 
is doing more good to the world than we can calculate 
or imagine. And yet those that are conducting the 
commerce of the world are, to a very great extent, 
in their private and special operations respecting it, 
oppressors. For tlie first contact of the commercial 
spirit is apt to produce oppression. The commerce 
of the world is conducted by the strong ; and usually 
it operates against the weak. And there is no Chris- 
tianity yet that can restrain large numbers of men 
under such circumstances. The strength that intelli- 
gence gives, the very power which Christianity has 
wrought, the facihty of practical life, and the fertility 
of tliought and feeling that lias been bred in us by 
many generations, have made us keen, potent, victo- 
rious, in the conflicts of commerce throughout the 
world, without at the same time making us so humane 
as to feel that we are burdened with the responsibility 
of all those whom our commerce regards. 

And the world is full of this spirit. Commerce is a 
gigantic power. And the selfishness of commerce is a 
very fortress of sin. It is wrought into all nations. 
The conflict of the Gospel with the spirit of selfishness 
in commerce is to constitute a solemn part of the 
history of the coming times of the world. 

If you ask, further, " Where is Babylon ? " I reply, 
" In no one place, in no one age ; but in every age, 
and in every land where the energies and industries 
of nations are aroused to increase wealth regardless of 
the welfare of mankind, — there is Babylon." "The 
kingdom of God, — where is that? " In no one place ; 
for the Ungxlom of God is a term that signifies the 
movement of a moral force. And wherever there is 



THE SOUTHERN BABYLON. 423 

progressive goodness, wherever there is rectitude and 
justice, there is tlie kingdom of God. And wherever 
there is injustice, wherever there is the spirit of traffic 
and of gain, wherever there is the power and the prac- 
tice of increasing one's own strength at the expense 
of the welfare of others, there is the other kingdom, or 
that part of the kingdom of darkness which is called in 
the Revelation '' Babylon." It is, then, the symbol of 
a moral movement. 

This is tlie great form of wickedness in our day. 
Once the world was warlike, and the populations of the 
earth were destroyed by war and its attendant evils, 
by famine, by pestilence, and by the executioner's axe ; 
but like numbers of men are now destroyed by coal- 
mines, by factories, by overtaxing labors in cities and 
on plantations. And all the wastes and destructions 
of men that aforetime have been through governments, 
are now through firms and companies, in the main ; 
for Babylon is the modern dynasty of the Devil. 

Against this the whole spirit and tendency of Chris- 
tianity utters its solemn protest. Man is sacred, — not 
fabrics, not metals, not buildings, not cities, but man- 
kind. This is to become the fanaticism, or at least 
the enthusiasm, of modern civilization, — the sacred- 
ness of mankind ; and those who are the weakest are 
to become the special objects of Divine care ; and we 
are to accept that. While hitherto, in the earlier 
periods of this world's struggle, the strong have had 
the advantage in life, as that struggle progresses, and 
God is bringing moral things to their victorious pe- 
riods, we shall begin to see that he takes care of the 
weakest and the lowest. We are beginning to see it 
already. 



424 FEEEDOM AND WAR. 

A judgment is decreed against tliis special wicked- 
ness ; and it is so determined that God does not leave 
it even to his own voluntary government of provi- 
dence, but infixes it into the course of nature, and 
establishes it by natural law. It has been made appar- 
ent, and it becomes more and more apparent, that any 
course which builds up national wealth and national 
power at the expense of the poor and the needy, works 
in at the same time an element of decline, of weakness, 
and of death itself. 

The whole future progress of Christianity requires 
the overthrow of such a wrong. The essence of 
Christianity is good-will to the poor and to the needy. 
It must destroy, therefore, every system whose essence 
is the neglect, the misuse, the degradation, and the 
destruction of the poor and the needy. However long 
delayed, however much soever seemingly overthrown, 
God has determined that there yet shall be victory of 
Christianity over this form of Satan. 

Hence the solemnity and the full meaning of our 
text in its exhortation to every one to come out from 
such wickedness. 

" I heard another voice from heaven, saying. Come 
out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her 
sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues." 

Every man that means to stand safely, every man 
that means to be recognized and owned of God, is 
summoned carefully to separate himself from all 
courses and tendencies and parties and sides that are 
seeking their success by wasting or destroying God's 
poor and God's needy. 

I propose, from this stand-point, on this the first 
Sabbath of January, — for that day stands lifted 



THE SOUTHERN BABYLON. 425 

higher, it seems to me, as a watch-tower, than all tlie 
other Sabbaths, — to look upon the world, and sum- 
marily to consider the present condition of nations 
with reference to this peculiar triumph of the Gospel, 
— the deliverance of the poor from the exactions and 
oppressions of tyrannic and despotic commerce. 

I. Look upon that continent, dark and mysterious, 
of Africa. But little light falls there. Its interior is 
possessed by populations immense but ignorant, de- 
based by superstition, practising many outrages among 
themselves and upon themselves, and yet susceptible 
of civilization and of an eminent future. It is the 
fashion of many persons to deride and to despise the 
African people, as a stock incapable of civilization. I 
have no manner of doubt that there are some elements 
of civilization that are more eminent in one nation- 
ality than in another, but I count it as little less than 
blasphemous to say of a whole continent of people that 
God has made, that they are unsusceptible of that de- 
velopment and civilization which is the common prop- 
erty and lot of the whole human family. I regard the 
African race as destined to a future, — if not such a 
one as belongs to European races, yet one that shall 
be signal for its own light and its own glory. 

Some efforts are making for this benighted conti- 
nent. Travellers are exploring its territory ; and 
every year they are bringing us more and more accu- 
rate and extended information concerning it. Mis- 
sions have lit tapers, at last, along the coast. Colonies 
there are, one or two ; and although they are green 
spots on the great continent, they are just such green 
spots as in this winter night you shall find of mistle- 
toe in the boughs of old oak-trees. There is one little 



426 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

handful of mistletoe to a whole great barren tree ; 
and as that hangs in the bough of the tree, so these 
one or two colonies hang in the boughs of that vast 
continent. And commerce is hovering around about 
it, like a sea-gull, off and on, seeking food. 

Yet, withal, but little is yet accomplished ; and we 
may say that darkness still broods where for ages 
darkness has not been irradiated. Africa and its 
countless millions may be said to be yet buried in a 
midnight for which there seems to be no preparation 
of morning. But a morning shall come, though its 
star has not yet dawned. God, that holds the stars in 
his riglit hand, will in his own time roll them above 
the horizon ; and there shall be a bright and morning 
star for Africa. 

II. Look at Asia. The prevalent condition of its 
population is one of abasement and oppression. The 
unnumbered millions of people that dwell in Asia are 
low, debased, oppressed, wasting and wasted, India 
and China have been appropriated by the commerce 
of Europe, and chiefly of Great Britain. For more 
than a hundred and fifty years, the commerce of Eng- 
land has fed on the people of Asia. England has fed 
on the spoils of commercial oppression. All her Chris- 
tianity is not to-day strong enough to roll an opium- 
pill into the sea ! All her love of liberty and Chris- 
tianity combined is not to-day strong enough to break 
a thread of cotton ! And of all the nations of time, of 
all the kingdoms on the earth, there is not one that 
stands so centrally the very Babylon of Babylons, made 
rich and strong by grinding people and eating them 
up, as England. 

And yet there are some signs of movement even in 



THE SOUTHERN BABYLON. 427 

Asia: there are some in India, some in China, and 
some in Japan. There are there some preparations 
for a growth of civiHzation ; but it belongs to another 
generation. There are to be great revolutions and 
great changes in prosperous empires before the latter- 
day glory is to come, if great moral truths and equities 
are to be illustrated in latter-day glory. There is but 
little of promise in Asia. 

III. Let us turn, then, to Europe. What is its condi- 
tion with reference to the enfranchisement of its millions 
of common people ? I note with pleasure and joy the 
signs of revived national life in the group of Mediter- 
ranean nations. Spain is showing signs of renewed 
life. Italy has electrified the world by springing from 
her dust and standing up again clothed and in her 
right mind. Greece is also beginning to assert her 
national life. And Turkey herself, though a sick and 
feeble and perishing nation in her political forms, has 
under her political forms a stock as noble, I beUeve, 
as there is on the face of the earth. For although 
every Turk that has touched public life has found in 
it about the same effect which it has wrought in Occi- 
dental nations, and has been corrupted by it, if you go 
outside of state and government employment, you shall 
find that the common people of Turkey are a noble 
common people. And there is hope for them. In 
regard to all this group of nations along the Mediter- 
ranean, it is a popular and commercial regeneration 
that is taking place, and not a governmental regenera- 
tion. The people of all these kingdoms have asserted 
their rights ; and in so far as they have been gained, 
they have been gained by them, and not /or them. It 
is an initiative and prophetic, rather than a settled 



428 FREEDOM AND AVAR. 

and accomplished thing. Southern Europe looks to- 
ward a brighter future. There is hope for her com- 
mon people. 

And as for Middle Europe, including Austria, Ger- 
many, Denmark, and Scandinavia, it may be said that 
there is a reactionary and conservative state of govern- 
ment in this long line of nations, but that there is a 
slow amelioration of the common people, which is im- 
portant rather for what it promises than for what it 
yet is. It seems to me that the progress of the Ger- 
manic race may more fitly be compared to the motion 
of its glaciers on the Tyrol mountains than to the 
growth of the harvests of our populous plains and val- 
leys, where the seed is sown, and comes up, and grows, 
and ripens, and is ready for the sickle, in one year. 
The German mind is like a frozen river lying aslant 
upon the mountains, which moves, but which moves 
so slowly that men disputed for a whole generation as 
to whether it aid move or not, — a question which 
could be settled only by driving stakes and taking 
observations from month to month. But it moves. 
And as the glaciers are making channels in the sides 
of the mountains, and abrading the rocks, and melthig 
the ice, and flowing down, and making soil in the 
valleys below, so the Germanic and central nations 
of Europe are moving and preparing for a glorious 
future. 

Russia presents the most noble attitude of any 
nation in Europe. The whole national life is under- 
going a change in the direction of restoring rights to 
the common people. If we had been called to single 
out that nation which would most signally illustrate 
the spirit of Christian democracy, the last one that we 



THE SOUTHERN BABYLON. 429 

should have mentioned would have been Russia. And 
yet she is the first in this thing. '' The last shall bo 
first." 

This is not the work of the people ; it is not the 
work of commerce. The most remarkable feature 
in this movement of the vast Russian Empire, of the 
enfranchisement of its serfs, is that it is the work of 
the government ; and that it is the work of a gov- 
ernment the most concentrated and autocratic that 
has been known in the history of the world. And 
the Czar of Russia stands, beyond all question, the 
emancipator of the nineteenth century. Crown the 
head, then, of this Caesar. Pluck leaves from the 
tree of life and immortal blossoms, and put a wreath 
around about his head, who, standing in a place that 
has made men before him hard and cruel and selfish, 
has been moved by the Spirit of God to take his posi- 
tion in the forefront of modern progress, and emanci- 
pate the myriad slaves of his vast empire. The whole 
resources of that kingdom are now embarked in this 
gigantic reformation. It is the only instance of the 
kind in Europe. There is not another movement like 
it there. Every otlier king in Europe of whom we 
know anything is fearing and dreading a popular en- 
franchisement. All the other governments of Europe 
may now be said to be resisting the encroachments of 
the common people, and seeking to build new dikes 
and levees and dams to keep the people within some 
bounds. And Russia only stands, by her government, 
and through her autocrat, her Czar, giving liberty to 
her slaves. 

Not in Italy, that old land of republics and of early 
civilization ; not in Germany, that land of Reforma- 



430 FREEDOM AND WAE. 

tion, — the seed-grouud and granary of modern lib- 
erty ; not in France, for an age inoculating the world 
with the virus of democracy, which never takes at 
home ; not in England, the land of the Puritan, and 
the sturdy defender of popular rights ;— but in Russia, 
a synonyme for all that is despotic, is now going on 
God's drama of emancipation, the most illustrious act 
of modern times. 

If we look to Western Europe, France and England 
are both of them retrograding ; not in wealth, — they 
were never so rich ; not in material civilization, — 
they were never building so many roads and so many 
ships, and making so many improvements. In both, 
commerce is the instrument that is strongest, and is 
most influencing government and the intermediate 
classes between the government and the lowest class. 
And the spirit of commerce in England and France is 
not only selfish, but tending to be despotic, and to 
violate the natural rights of man. The war of France 
to-day in Mexico is a most signal illustration of the 
commerce of France ; and that war seeks to violate 
every right of a nation for no other reason than a 
commercial reason. 

I shall not speak of England and her position, for 
the simple reason that there is bad blood enough, — 
and there has been reason enough for bad blood ! My 
convictions are such, and they are so fixed in my very 
nature, that if I speak at all I shall speak strongly ; 
and I do not wish to deepen and strengthen any im- 
pressions, which are already deep enough and strong 
enough, between our kindred on the other side of tlie 
water and ourselves here. God will judge her, and 
history will judge her. 



THE SOUTHERN BABYLON. 431 

From Europe, turn we to the other continent that 
is left, — America. Unmentioned in our inventory of 
American States is one which has in it perhaps as 
bright a promise as any other on the continent, — 
Canada. The umbilical cord which connects this un- 
weaned child with her unfertilizing mother ought to 
be cut ! It is high time it was cut ! And with a 
territory second to none, with climates as favorable 
as our own, with two oceans as much as we, and with 
the beginning of a population than which no nation 
could desire to have a better, I know not why Canada 
is not yet to take her place among the great nations 
of the time and the world. In so far as her present 
is concerned, it may be torpid in spots, and inert, but 
in all its activities it is forward and healthful and 
Christian. God bless Canada, and give her a glorious 
and illustrious future. And as she bears her me- 
teor flag westward, it shall be her glory, above any 
nation that dwells upon this hemisphere, to carry a 
banner that in her hands has never been held over 
the head of a slave. And when her cities shall be 
built, and her ports shall be opened on the Pacific 
coast, and her commerce shall extend from ocean to 
ocean, clear across this hemisphere, she shall be the 
free nation of the North, and the mother of freedom. 
Again, God bless Canada ! 

Before I speak of our own affairs, let me dismiss 
the residue of the earth, by saying that South Amer- 
ica seems to me like an hour-glass that has just so 
many sands in it, which run from this orb down into 
that, and then, by revolution, is turned upside down, 
when the same sands run back again. She has been 
shifting about once in ten years ever since I was born, 



432 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

and I do not know liow long the same process had 
been gomg on when I was born. I suppose from the 
beginning of the world. As she was, she is still, — 
and I know not but that she will be so to the end of 
time. The signs of her future are not many, nor 
are they very encouraging. 

In looking upon our own country, the external 
appearance is sad. Civil war is always a spectacle of 
sadness. The conflict of brethren, the horrible loss 
of life, and the attendant sufferings that hover about 
the movements of armies, and that belong to cam- 
paigns, — if you look upon these outward things, 
you shall mourn, and say, " It is a time of darkness, 
of thick darkness, when there is no light even upon 
the mountains " ; but if you look at the condition of 
the country, not externally, not from within, it is 
noble. For there is just now a conflict for the gov- 
ernment of this continent between two giant forces, 
— the spirit of Christian liberty and democracy, and 
the spirit of aristocratic oppression. And the specta- 
cle which is before God and angels and faith-seeing 
men, is this spectacle of the last great battle of the 
Lord God Almighty on this continent between these 
two great forces ; the one importing^ in its heart, in 
its principles, and in its inevitable victories, the wel- 
fare of the common people to the very bottom ; and 
the other importing, in its heart, in its principles, 
and in its intent, the subjugation of the common peo- 
ple ; the one, by every shigle element that belongs to 
it, by its whole Christianity, by all its antecedents, 
by every single one of the institutions that it has 
established, living for the education and the elevation 
of the ignorant and the poor, and for the strengthen- 



THE SOUTHERN BABYLON. 433 

ing of the weak ; and the other, by every radical 
element of its existence, and by its avowed and de- 
clared purposes, taking the poor and the weak and 
the ignorant, as the vintner takes the cluster, to crush 
it, that he may drink the wine that runs from it. 
These two great opposing forces are now in conflict 
on this continent. 

We love to read, in Milton, of the fight of angels, 
good and bad. We love, in poetic descant, to imagine 
God blowing his great trumpet, and summoning all 
the good and all the evil into conflict ; but there 
never was portrayed in Milton, or in any fiction, a 
conflict so sublime as that which is taking place in 
our land and in our time. You and I, and your 
children and mine, are witnessing the illustrious 
parts of the conflict between the great cause of God 
in modern civilization and the cause of the Devil. 

The present stage of this conflict, I think, is the 
sublimest that it has yet attained. If the very con- 
ception is sublime, thus far the outworking of it has 
been. At last the government of the United States 
stands straight again. 

In our Western forests, where mighty tempestuous 
winds rend and cast down trees one upon another, 
now and then, in its fall during a storm, some great 
tree overlays the stem of another tree, and holds it 
down, and it learns to grow crooked ; until another 
storm comes and shakes off the entangling load, when 
the bent tree is left to seek its original straightness, 
which, little by little, and year by year, it at last re- 
covers, so that the crook is all gone, and it once more 
holds out its branches to the free heaven alike on 
every side. 

19 BB 



434 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

Just SO, at last, the government of these United 
States has righted itself. Slavery, that bent it and 
held it down so long, has rolled off, and left it to ex- 
tend every leaf and every branch alike North and 
South and East and West, to the spirit of liberty. 
The President of these United States — to be ac- 
cused, certainly, of no haste ; to be charged with no 
rashness in judgment ; led by no vain confidence in 
his own intuitions ; after long and painful delibera- 
tion, and an anxious seeking for some other way — 
has been constrained to issue his Proclamation for the 
emancipation of the slaves of the States that are in re- 
bellion against this government. And I consider that 
to be the event of this century in the West. There 
are two great facts in this world, and there are but 
two. All other facts besides these are as dust. They 
are, first, the autocrat of Russia, standing in the far 
Eastern hemisphere, and against his nobles, employ- 
ing the whole military resources and wealth of that 
great empire for the enfranchisement of his serfs ; 
and second, the President of this Occidental republic, 
standing in the midst of war and darkness, and send- 
ing forth the light of that Proclamation by which he 
declares the liberty of three millions of slaves on this 
continent. These two events are like two mountains 
of Calvary lifted up. All the rest that is doing in 
the world is low and dim in the comparison. 

The moral recognition which the President was 
pleased to give in the issuing of this military order is 
most becoming. It seems to me that it could not 
have been omitted in his Proclamation. After so 
many ages of Christianity in the world, after such a 
career as that of this nation, if the President of the 



THE SOUTHERN BABYLON. 435 

United States had not based his action, at least in 
part, on considerations of justice and rectitude, he 
would have violated the very spirit of the age in 
which he lives. And I thank God, in his behalf, that 
he was led to take that step ; and that, though he 
took it as the Commander-in-chief of our armies, he 
yet took it because it was just, as well as necessary. 
For I tell you, you are not fit to be free, nor to be the 
conservators of the freedom of other men, until the 
time comes when you shall be able to say, in the ful- 
ness of your heart, in respect to every man on the 
globe, black or white, that liberty is his right, — not 
our benefit, not our advantage, but his right. And 
although the occasion of giving men back their 
natural rights is a military necessity, it is none the 
less a glorious triumph, that through that we recog- 
nize the divine truth of the natural right of every 
man to his own life, and his own liberty, and to the 
pursuit of happiness. 

This Proclamation, I know, may not set one slave 
free to-day or to-morrow, — for the Proclamation is 
but an arrow. The army is the bow. An arrow 
without a bow is a poor thing. This Proclamation 
without an army might effect but little ; but with an 
army it may produce important results. And as to 
that, the Lord God of love is also the Lord God of 
hosts. The God of justice is the God of battles. 
And since we have conformed to the decrees of eter- 
nal justice, may we not believe that now He that leads 
the armies of the heaven and of the earth will give 
us victory ? I believe that he will. 

Although there may not be to-day nor to-morrow 
the emancipation of any considerable number of slaves, 



436 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

although the freedom of those in bondage is something 
that is yet to be earned, we have emancipated a good 
deal. Though we may not have set free one slave, we 
have set this government free, and we have set this 
great nation free ; and that is a great deal. You and 
I have no longer the responsibility of the slavery of 
three millions of men by our relations to a government 
which indorses their servitude. We have been bend- 
ing under our own indorsements, like merchants who 
have lent their name to paper enough to sweep their 
whole property ; and now we are like those same mer- 
chants when at last their paper is all gathered up, and 
their name is cancelled, and there is not the scratch of 
a pen against them. 

There is one feature in the Proclamation to which I 
desire to call your attention, and that is the declara- 
tion of the Commander-in-Chief of the armies of these 
United States that the slaves set free should be em- 
ployed in the military service of the government. I 
thank God for that. It is a most potent step. The 
moment a man is declared to be free, that moment he 
becomes a citizen : not with all the political rights and 
duties known to a citizen ; but he becomes a citizen. 
A man may be a citizen, and yet not be like every 
other one. A woman is a citizen ; but she does not 
vote nor bear office under the government. A child 
is a citizen ; and still a child has no part in forming 
public policy. And a slave is a citizen, if he is born in 
this country, and if he is declared to be free. He may 
not be a citizen empowered to vote, or entitled to 
office ; but he is a citizen entitled to his life, to his lib- 
erty, and to the pursuit of happiness. He is a citizen 
entitled to self-defence, and to the privilege of fighting 
for his own country. 



THE SOUTHERN BABYLON. 437 

When the President, recognizing the liberty of these 
oppressed people, declares that they shall be protected 
and received into the army, and allowed to hold forts 
and perform other military service, he has taken a 
second great step over and above the declaration of 
their freedom ; for it prevents the motives for an 
irregular and savage warfare on their part, should they 
be provoked to any such folly. It provides a way in 
which whatever resistance they may please to make 
against their oppressors may be under the direction 
of the military authorities of this nation. 

Nobody can predict the future except in a very gen- 
eral way ; but I anticipate now a conflict more terrific 
than anything that we have yet had. I have never 
been one that supposed such a proclamation would 
alarm Southern men. The day for doing things with 
moral effect was allowed to pass by. God had a plan 
in it ; and since that has come to pass which I saw 
coming to pass, since our mistakes have been over- 
ruled, as they have been, for the furtherance of the 
great cause of God in liberty, I am not disposed to 
complain, as at times I did complain. It is very evi- 
dent that the whole period of popular enthusiasm, and 
the whole time for striking down the rebellion when 
in the gristle, was wasted. The counsels that for a 
long time prevailed and controlled the movements of 
our armies were counsels which subsequent events 
have proved to have been foolish, and which it has 
been found necessary to cut up by the roots and cast 
away. And diplomacy is now occupied in unsaying 
what diplomacy was twelve months ago occupied in 
saying. But that is all past ; that has gone by. What 
the future is to be I cannot tell ; but I suppose that 



438 FKEEDOM AND WAR. 

this Proclamation will be met by a counter proclama- 
tion of the President of the so-called Confederate 
States. We cannot but acknowledge that, whatever 
may be their faults, the South have not found them- 
selves wanting in fidelity to their own ideas, in manli- 
ness in the defence of their territory, nor in a head 
to guide them skilfully and bravely. And if this 
Proclamation is not met with a proclamation that 
more than matches it on the part of Mr. Davis, it will 
be the first time that he has been found stumbling in 
this conflict. 

And then, when it is proclamation against procla- 
mation, government against government, and people 
against people, there will be no such thing as compro- 
mise, there will be no chance for amicable settlement, 
— as for a long time there has not been. And you 
must lie down and let them walk over your necks, or 
they must lie down and you must walk over their 
necks. We may just as well look at it as it is. We 
may just as well understand the literal truth, and 
prepare ourselves for the one thing or the other. 

I believe that there are many honest men who think 
that tills matter might yet be compromised. There 
are many honest men who are overturing backwards 
and forwards, and trying to bring about a friendly 
adjustment of the case. But making overtures to the 
Southern government is just about such a piece of 
wisdom as it would be for a Sunday-school child to sit 
by the cage of a boa-constrictor in Van Amburg's 
menagerie, and try to make him recite the ten com- 
mandments ! May all that they have accomplished 
by their mediations do them good. I give them the 
credit of being honest men ; but they are very simple. 



THE SOUTHERN BABYLON. 439 

to say the least. The South do not mean compromise. 
They have taken their ear of corn, and husked it, and 
there is no husk left. They have shelled it, and there 
is no cob left. Their cause is clear kernel and meal, 
nothing else. And we may as well husk our ear now, 
and see everything in the grit and grain, and put our 
absoluteness against their absoluteness, and go for- 
ward with the old war-cry, God and Justice^ and let 
that prevail which God pleases to make triumphant. 
I am wilhng to take the risk. I am willing to have 
one more battle-field, illustrious above every other ; 
because never since the sun shone, never since gov- 
ernments were ordained, has there been an issue so 
absolute, so perpendicular, so crystalline, so devoid of 
all side issues, as this issue between absolute liberty 
and absolute slavery ; between aristocracy and democ- 
racy ; between the spirit of Christianity and the infi- 
delity of oppression. Never before was there an issue 
so clear on both sides ; and let it be settled. Let no 
man stand between these combatants ; for the war 
must be fought out. You have gone to the expense, 
you have heaped up your treasure, you have sent 
forth your sons, you have mustered your armies, and 
you can never do it again so cheaply and with so little 
bloodshed as now. Therefore, in the name of God, in 
the name of Christ, in the name of the Holy Ghost, for 
the sake of humanity, and for the love of mankind, let 
this conflict go on till victory is declared on one side 
or the other. 

But, whatever we may say or do, brethren, I believe 
that we are going on the Gulf-Stream of a Divine de- 
cree. I believe that we, as a nation, are being swept 
down a course that has been appointed from the foun- 



440 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

dation of the world, and that the counsels of eternity 
are guiding that movement by which we are dancing 
like bubbles on the waves of the sea. Therefore it is 
rather to urge you to joyful consent, than because 1 
think you can withdraw yourselves from this move- 
ment, that I now speak. For it has been wisely said, 
that in times of revolution single men are nothing 
at all ; that great principles and causes take their 
course, and no man can hinder or resist them. If a 
man were being swept down the Niagara River, it 
would make very little difference, in so far as his res- 
cue was concerned, what his struggles or his thoughts 
were. Once in the stream, he must go over the preci- 
pice, and take his chances. And we must go down 
the cataract of war. It is not in the power of any 
limber-backed, shallow-pated fool to stop the career of 
God's decrees. 

What, then, are our duties at this time, as a Chris- 
tian people ? It seems to me that our first duty con- 
sists in such a preparation of heart and mind that we 
can walk with God, and look at the events that are 
taking place, not from the low stand-point of the pas- 
sions, or of self-interest, but from the stand-point of 
truth and righteousness. We ought to stand on the 
high platform on which God stands, and from thence 
behold the course of Divine Providence. 

And then, next, we should be chastened, it seems 
to me, in our griefs and in our sorrows. God sends 
mourning into every house. Again that has come to 
pass which took place ages since. We are the modern 
Egypt ; and the millions in the house of bondage we 
have refused to let go, until, as of old, the first-born 
has fallen in almost every family in tlie North. And 



THE SOUTHERN BABYLON. 441 

the outcry that is heard in all our land is the outcry 
of grief and sorrow at the death of, how many 
young ! how many noble ! how many heroic ! 

You have sent your children in honor before you, 
but you have not lost one of them. And, of the young 
and fair that went forth from the college, from the 
academy, from the law-office, from their many voca- 
tions, and grasped the sword and musket, and entered 
into the service of their dearly beloved country, me- 
thinks I see one and another, in their bright ascension, 
standing to look on the bodies dripping on fields of 
gore, and to chide the grief that sees the outside, and 
not, through that, the reahty and glory of their heav- 
enly state. You mourn not as those that have no 
hope, for the fallen. 

We ought also to understand that, in the victory of 
our government, which we may hope impends, there 
is to be laid upon the Church a very solemn responsi- 
bility for the care of these millions of poor and helpless 
creatures. It is going to be a very serious thing for a 
man to be a philanthropist and a Christian from this 
time forward ; and we ought not to spend our enthu- 
siasm merely in patriotic descant : we ought to begin 
to pray, and to ask God what is our duty toward those 
that are about to be rolled as a responsibility upon tlie 
conscience and the heart of the Church. We must 
tlnnk betimes of these things, and prepare ourselves 
for them beforehand. 

Moreover, it is the duty of all, and I solemnly en- 
join it upon every young man and maiden, to stand 
up now, at home and abroad, in season and out of 
season, and with a holy and chastened enthusiasm, for 
those great principles of Christian liberty which have 

19* 



442 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

been imperilled, and which lie at the root of this 
moral struggle. 

There is one thing that commands my admiration, 
whether it be in man or bird or beast, — and that is, 
fidelity to an avowed object, and a readiness to suffer 
for it. 

It befell me, when I lived in the West, to be dis- 
quieted by the screeching of blue-jays around my 
house, and I determined that I would make way 
with the nuisance. Accordingly, day by day, I took 
my gun, and dropped them one after another. And 
I noticed, from time to time, how tenacious they were 
of life, and how violently every one of them fought 
when wounded. One day I picked up a bird that I 
had shot, and I was forcibly impressed with the 
heroism that he displayed. He would not die. He 
would not give up. He fought me with claw and 
bill, and gleamed upon me with his bright, kingly eye. 
And the thought came over me of his pluck, and 
courage, and unflinching spirit, and I said to him, 
" You deserve to live, and for your sake I will never 
shoot another of your kind," — and I never did. I 
admired the temper of that unvanquished bird. 

And — let me confess the weakness — I admire, 
even in a bad cause, the heroic spirit, the indomitable 
courage, that we behold in Southern women, in South- 
ern men, and in Southern boys. They are on the 
wrong side ; but they put us to shame by their utter 
entluisiasm for the most accursed cause that ever the 
sun was permitted to shine on. They have embraced 
it, and have given their heart and life to it, and they 
are willing to suffer for it. And now, shall we, for 
the sake of that cause which is the hope of nations. 



THE SOUTHERN BABYLON. 443 

for the sake of that cause which was cradled in the 
bosom of ages, for the sake of that cause which bears 
prophecies of good-will to all the world, — shall we, 
for the sake of all that unites earth to heaven and 
makes man godlike, for the sake of God and justice, 
and for the sake of sweet and ever-blooming liberty, 
have no enthusiasm and no courage ? I command 
every young man in my presence to let no man daunt 
him ; to let no man deter him from an outspoken 
and enthusiastic love of liberty and right. And I 
command every maiden to crown witli her smiles, 
and to give preference to only those men who are 
enough men to avow their enthusiasm for liberty. 
Since to our hands is committed this priceless boon, 
on us rests the responsibility of vindicating the natu- 
ral rights of men, of showing courage and enthusi- 
asm for them, and of rebuking, with the utmost scorn 
and indignation that a Christian heart may feel, those 
miserable manlings, those wretched homunculi, that 
stand in the midst of the blessings of liberty to be 
ashamed of liberty, and to call it a sentimentalism 
and a philanthropism. Let these isms, and all the 
manikins that belong to them, go ; and do you stand 
enthusiasts and glorious triumphers for God in hu- 
man rights. 

Meanwhile, shall I draw aside the veil? Shall I 
point out what is coming ? Shall I open up the fu- 
ture ? I will read, rather, the words of the sublime 
prophecy. Listen to the doom that is to be theirs, 
who, for pelf and selfish commerce, are determined 
to oppress the poor and the needy. It is the Word 
of God. 

" And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornica- 



444 FREEDOM AND WAR. 

tion, and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and 
lament for her," — they are doing it already ; they want a 
mediation ; they are very anxious to have peace, — " when 
they shall see the smoke of her burning, standing afar off 
for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city 
Babylon, that mighty city ! for in one hour is thy judgment 
come. And the merchants of the earth shall weep and 
mourn over her ; for no man buyeth their merchandise any 
more ; the merchandise of gold and silver and precious 
stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and 
scarlet, and all thyine-wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, 
and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, 
and iron, and marble, and cinnamon, and odors, and oint- 
ments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, 
and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, 
and slaves, and souls of men." 

That is the commerce of the South. 

" And the fruits that thy soul lusteth after are departed 
from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly 
are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at 
all. The merchants of these things, which were made rich 
by her, shall stand afar off, for the fear of her torment, weep- 
ing and wailing, and saying, Alas, alas, that great city that 
was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked 
with gold, and precious stones, and pearls ! For in one hour 
so great riches is come to nought. And every ship-master, 
and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as 
trade by sea, stood afar off, and cried when they saw the 
smoke of her burning, saying. What city is like unto this 
great city ! And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, 
weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, 
wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea, by 
reason of her costliness ! for in one hour is she made deso- 
late. Rejoice over her, thou heaven, and ye holy apostles 



THE SOUTHERN BABYLON. 



445 



and prophets ; for God hatli avenged you on her. And a 
mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone, and cast 
it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great 
city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more 
at all." 

So may slavery perish, and those that uphold it ! 



